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Royal Bank of Canada Cashes Out of SCO; SCO Begins Layoffs

jbell99999 is the first one to submit news that the Royal Bank of Canada is divesting itself of SCO stock. They're selling part of their preferred stock to Baystar, which has already indicated that they want to redeem their shares, and converting the rest to regular stock, which they can presumably sell on the open market. In other SCO news, Versicherung writes "The Santa Cruz Sentinel is reporting, SCO is laying off 10 percent of its worldwide workforce. The cuts come less than a month after the company brought on a new chief financial officer and just before the company ended its second fiscal quarter April 30." See also stories at Eweek and Linuxinsider.com.

585 comments

  1. Oblig. Simpsons Quote by Big+Toe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Haha!

    1. Re:Oblig. Simpsons Quote by NaugaHunter · · Score: 0

      Worst. Quote. Ever.

      --
      R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
    2. Re:Oblig. Simpsons Quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You gotta love this.

      http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOX&t=6m&l=on&z =m &q=l&c=

      Time for Darl get a box and pack up the office.

    3. Re:Oblig. Simpsons Quote by xanadu-xtroot.com · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that be better said by Cartman?

      --
      I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
      I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
    4. Re:Oblig. Simpsons Quote by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

      Sc-uhreew you guys.... I'm cashing out.

    5. Re:Oblig. Simpsons Quote by fbform · · Score: 1

      Not if you see this. But then again, this.

      --
      Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
  2. Thank "The Doors.".. by pegr · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the end
    Beautiful friend
    This is the end
    My only friend, the end

    Of our elaborate plans, the end
    Of everything that stands, the end
    No safety or surprise, the end
    I'll never look into your eyes...again

    Quite appropriate, don't you think?

    1. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      beauty. all is going exactly as we all expected, methinks

    2. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by daeley · · Score: 5, Funny

      People are strange when you're Darl McBride
      Linux looks ugly when you're alone
      IBM seems wicked when you've just sued them
      Wall Street is uneven when your stock is down

      When you're Darl
      Lawyers come out of the rain
      When you're Darl
      No one won't curse your name
      When you're Darl
      When you're Darl
      When you're Darl

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    3. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'll catch hell and lose all my karma for this but perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to cheer this on. Darl is an evil bastard but I feel bad for the people who have the misfortune of working there (and who might not have anywhere else to go -- the economy sucks) that are about to get pink slips because of his ill-advised legal battle against IBM.

      I doubt you'd be so quick to cheer if a member of your family worked for them -- or if you owned stock and have been watching Carl & Co. run it into ground.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    4. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      I said, "Darl I'm here to kill you."

      And he walked on down the hall...

    5. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by pr0c · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If I were an employee there I would have been looking for a new job for months and months and months... Not because I hate SCO but because I would consider the job to be too unstable. If they couldn't have the foresight to do the same... screw em.

    6. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by DaHat · · Score: 2, Informative

      and who might not have anywhere else to go -- the economy sucks

      You make it sound so easy. Regardless of how much ones job may suck, finding another one is rarely easy these days. By your statement, I do not think you have much experience in the real world as what you said is far easier said then done.

    7. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I were an employee there I would have been looking for a new job for months and months and months... Not because I hate SCO but because I would consider the job to be too unstable. If they couldn't have the foresight to do the same... screw em.

      "Screw 'em"? Nice attitude. What if they have been looking and can't find another job? And my comment gets modded down? Geesh!

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    8. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by chainsaw1 · · Score: 1
      --
      - Sig
    9. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by plopez · · Score: 1

      A friend of mine was laid off from a Salt Lake valley company after 15 years as a sand bender. She went looking for work and all she could get was offers for 30k/yr, fsk you very much. That valley is devastated.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    10. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by el-spectre · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most of us aren't cheering because someone is losing their job, but because the company that is being such a shit is in trouble.

      Kind of like how you might feek bad for telemarketers (the employees), but were happy when the do - not - call list went into effect.

      --
      "Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
    11. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You know that it would be untrue
      You know that I would be a liar
      If I was to say to you
      Torvalds is a thief and a liar

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire

      The time to litigate is through
      No time to wallow in the mire
      Try now we can only lose
      And our company become a funeral pyre

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire, yeah

      The time to litigate is through
      No time to wallow in the mire
      Try now we can only lose
      And our company become a funeral pyre

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire, yeah

      You know that it would be untrue
      You know that I would be a liar
      If I was to say to you
      Girl, our lawyers couldn't get much higher

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire

    12. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Da+Fokka · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is why the germans invented the term 'schadenfreude'.

    13. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    14. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by digitalmuse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      while I can understand your argument, and I agree that this does not bode well for the company's employees, I still think that in the long-term this is the 'best' course for this whole sorrid affair to follow.
      yes, it has nasty repercussions for the folks in the SCO cube-farm, but what kind of legal seal-bashing would be encouraged by letting SCO get away with this? If they got away with it this time, some other C?O with an ichy palm would think that these kinds of anti-FOSS/GPL antics were a neat way to mint money. Can you imagine the digital landscape in 2-5 years if we let Darl cart away the cash because big-bully-bill set him up to take cheap shots at the penguins?
      Perhaps BayStar will be a little bit more thorough in vetting the business plans of the companies they invest in? Maybe people will stop trying to rewrite/reinterpret their old contracts to get a better footing for creativity killing lawsuits? Maybe companies will return to the good old days of creating and selling products that consumers want and are willing to pay for, not just threatening people with lawsuits from ToonTown, UT.

      Yes, our fellow techies are losing their jobs, but did you ever cry over Vader's poor unknowning Stormtrooper henchmen as they ate blaster-fire like the faceless minions they are? C'mon, if you're an employee of a company pulling antics like SCO, then you should either get your CV in order and start seriously looking for employment elsewhere or just lie down like a dog and get the whuppin' that's likely to come down the tracks.

      --
      "If I wanted your input on my pet project, I'd stick my hand up your ass and use you like a sock-puppet." - Muse
    15. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yeah. "The Doors" are hitting them in the ass on the way out.

      So long!

    16. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by ThisIsFred · · Score: 1

      I'm not cheering about this. I feel sorry for these people. Everyone at SCO is a pawn. But these pawns aren't being well compensated like some of the other pawns. It's really sad. The layoffs should have started form the top down, but who fires the board of directors?

      --
      Fred

      "A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
      -RMS
    17. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by slam+smith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have a few friends who use to work for Caldera. They were real Linux people. A few monthes before the law suits started, they all started bailing out. I suspect that the people left there in the Utah offices are mostly just there to feed the lawsuits. I really don't have a lot of sympathy for them. Of course the don't seem to be the ones getting laid off.

      SCO is doomed with or without Darl. The sooner this ends the better. Think of all the resources this is wasting in companies like, IBM, Novell, DaimlerChrysler, Autozone, SGI, Redhat, etc. That could be much more profitably put towards new products, R&D, etc. How many new jobs might be created, instead of wasted on these legal struggles?

      And whil

    18. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      Try now we can only lose
      Should be "running out of folks to sue."

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    19. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      but who fires the board of directors?

      The shareholders. Of course they won't fire the board unless it fails to make them any money -- and by that time it's probably too late anyway.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    20. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      SCO employees like telemarketeers? Bad analogy. When someone takes a job as a telemarketeer they are deliberately setting out to do something they should know pisses people off. So to hell with telemarketeers.

      OTOH the SCO technical employees who joined before McBride's began his scam just took up jobs in good faith as software engineers etc and were not to know that the company was going to be used as a tool for an extortion racket.

      That does not mean however we should hope for SCO's survival. The world of Linux and open source is far bigger and more important than SCO and its unfortunate employees.

    21. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know one guy that worked at SCO who was extremely cocky about the whole thing. His notion was that whatever serious stuff that needed to be done was already done. I mentioned about several userland applications etc, and he sneered about them not being "core things".

      Drives a fancy car to boot too, and would probably find another job easily.

      I would say that your sympathy may be misplaced.

    22. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bah! SCO only really has lawyers left, so good riddens. When was the last time you heard of them making software? Who can they fire? Lawyers, managers, and different corporate bureacrats (accountants and other paper pushers). Noone left can really claim they were innocent as SCO tried to rape the Linux franchise.

      Go feel sorry for someone who deserves it, like the companies that were pressured into paying SCO's illegal fees.

    23. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      while I can understand your argument, and I agree that this does not bode well for the company's employees, I still think that in the long-term this is the 'best' course for this whole sorrid affair to follow.

      I'm not disagreeing with you.

      Yes, our fellow techies are losing their jobs, but did you ever cry over Vader's poor unknowning Stormtrooper henchmen as they ate blaster-fire like the faceless minions they are? C'mon, if you're an employee of a company pulling antics like SCO, then you should either get your CV in order and start seriously looking for employment elsewhere or just lie down like a dog and get the whuppin' that's likely to come down the tracks.

      I don't disagree with any of that either. My point was that there isn't a whole lot to be happy about in this fucked up situation. Even if SCO goes down in flames like the Deathstar it still managed to waste a lot of peoples money and time.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    24. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should be apologizing to the Doors, not thanking them.

    25. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by pr0c · · Score: 1

      If you can't find the job you want, then perhaps it is time to move. Its been what? Close to a year? That is sufficient time to find a job somewhere be it in their current area or elsewhere. It's not a big move to California... TechTV has some openings now [note: joke]! And if you still can't find a job, perhaps it is time to get a new career at least in the short term. I don't have the job I want, I don't whine about it either or expect a awwwwwwwww from anyone.

    26. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but at the end of the day- no one really cares about those people. :P

    27. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not all secretaries read Slashdot, asshole. Not everyone is you and knows what you know. Shocking, isn't it? When a company fucks their employees over they are responsible. I don't give a fuck what you would have done if you worked for SCO. Looks like most of the employees stayed on, probably for justifiable reasons--probably because their bosses lie to them every day. If you try to argue the majority of SCO employees are "evil," and are staying on to make a buck and fuck Linux over, you're an idiot.

    28. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice job, but "Everyone curses your name" would scan better and is semantically the same.

    29. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Uber+Banker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the economy sucks

      The economy most certainly does not suck. These are not the dot com days, but that was fantasy land anyway and best not returned to (it will only cause another crash). Non-farm payrolls today were excellent, the unemployment remains at 5.7% (low), interest rates are low and rises over the next two years will be gradual and low in historical terms. The household balance sheet is robust, consumer spending reasonable and corporate investment good. Successful global trade has the benefit of keeping prices of goods and services down allowing income to be spent on even more.

      The economy most certainly does not suck.

      Besides, a company losing 10% of its ~270 employees is less than the local fast food store going out of business... at least the employees of the local fast food joint had more belief in what they were doing - any SCO employee with ethics would have got out far sooner.

    30. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by comedian23 · · Score: 1

      Having twice gotten the, "We're sorry but your position is being eliminated." I understand where you are coming from. It is no fun. On the other hand you can look at these things two ways. You can look at it as a terrible tragedy or as an opportunity to go out and find something new. New jobs are out there. They may not get their fat salaries like from SCO(or should I say from all the greedy investors in the sinking ship that is SCO), but they will find something.

      I had to take over a 50% pay cut for a year and a half after one layoff, but I did get some great experience and knowledge in that time. It was tough but in retrospect I am glad for the experience. Eventually I ended up getting back to what I like to do, at a rate I am comfortable with.

      In all likelyhood these people probably knew this was coming and stayed on intentionally to collect some fat paychecks. In fact they are probably one a fishing boat right now enjoying the great salmon season the Bay Area is enjoying.

    31. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Spoing · · Score: 1
      1. I'll catch hell and lose all my karma for this but perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to cheer this on. Darl is an evil bastard but I feel bad for the people who have the misfortune of working there (and who might not have anywhere else to go -- the economy sucks) that are about to get pink slips because of his ill-advised legal battle against IBM.

      So, the idea is that the folks who stuck it out this long *didn't know* that the company they worked for is not doing good in the world -- and this ignorance is an excuse? Sorry, if you support evil knowingly, you're part of that evil.

      I can see a few months into the lawsuits being conned into thinking that something legitimate was going on -- but a year later?

      Sorry. No pitty. I've lost contracts because of bad budgeting (customer and contract management) -- and I've sucked up believing that the budget would come through. In this case, they knew what SCO was doing was wrong and decided to stay. Big difference.

      --
      A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
    32. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but that might not help you too much. I've been looking for a new job for months and months and months, but yet I am still working in this shithole.

    33. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Requiem · · Score: 1

      Two words: resume stain.

    34. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She went looking for work and all she could get was offers for 30k/yr, fsk you very much. That valley is devastated.

      I'd leap at the chance to earn 30k/yr.

      Of course, I live in a country with a currency that's worth more than monopoly money, but even so.

    35. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by rttichnor · · Score: 1

      omfg, I know so many people who have been looking for a job over two years and still can't find anything.

      screw yourself and stfu.

      _____________
      screw the mods, too. I got karma to burn.

    36. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IANARA (i am not a recording artist) but those lyrics got me ROTFLMAO! now if someone were to actually record the song with those lyrics and to release it here on slashdot in mp3 format would be really cool! hey, be sure to send darl a copy too!

    37. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by DonGar · · Score: 1


      A friend of mine was laid off from a Salt Lake valley company after 15 years as a sand bender. She went looking for work and all she could get was offers for 30k/yr, fsk you very much. That valley is devastated.


      Okay, I'll bite. What exactly is a "sand bender"?

      --
      plus-good, double-plus-good
    38. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

      SOMEONE SHOULD ACTUALLY RECORD THIS!

      You know that it would be untrue
      You know that I would be a liar
      If I was to say to you
      Torvalds is a thief and a liar

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire

      The time to litigate is through
      No time to wallow in the mire
      Try now we can only lose
      And our company become a funeral pyre

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire, yeah

      The time to litigate is through
      No time to wallow in the mire
      Try now we can only lose
      And our company become a funeral pyre

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire, yeah

      You know that it would be untrue
      You know that I would be a liar
      If I was to say to you
      Girl, our lawyers couldn't get much higher

      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire
      Try to set the source on fire

      AND SEND DARL A COPY!

    39. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      sandbender n. [IBM] A person involved with silicon lithography and the physical design of chips. Compare ironmonger, polygon pusher.

    40. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by nlindstrom · · Score: 3, Insightful
      You're a moron. It's your job, while employed at a company, to monitor what said company is doing. If they're busy fucking over the world, then that should serve as the writing on the wall.

      I can't stand people who are laid off and then whine "but I didn't see it coming!" Yeah, you had your eyes shut. Keep 'em open next time, eh?

      SCO employees have made their beds; now it is time for them to lie in them.

    41. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by DrLZRDMN · · Score: 1

      or better yet ogg

    42. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      %10 of 275 is about 28 jobs

      sure it sucks to be out of work but it's not that many people.

    43. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by pr0c · · Score: 1

      We all know people who have been "looking" for a job for over two years... at some point you have to realize it is time to start a new career and/or move. If you can't find a job you must adjust even though it is painful. If you do not want to change careers or move you'll have to just keep waiting. I'm in the same situation, I can't find a good job, I feel I bring in 1/2 of what I should but instead of whining about it I deal with it... in a few more years maybe I'll break the almighty 30,000 mark!

      In my experience (NOTE IN MY EXPERIENCE, THIS IS NOT A CLAIM OF THE GENERAL SITUATION) people who cannot find a job can find one, it isn't good enough for them.

    44. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by rossifer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I quit a job that was sucking the life out of me in September 2002. The job market in 2002 appeared much worse than the job market today. It took me until January 2003 to find a better job, and the one I found turned out to be 1500 miles away from my friends and family.

      Sure it was scary to do when the economy sucked and jobs were few and far between. Sure I was worried about how I was going to pay bills (I took a class in bartending just in case). Sure I was freaked out about moving halfway across the country for a new and mostly unknown job. But I did all of those things and so can others.

      Quite simply, there was absolutely no way in hell that I was going to stay in that job. Life is simply too short to spend 8 or more hours a day being miserable. If I worked for SCO before their lawsuit, I'd have been one of the first out the door, with or without a replacement job in hand. There's simply no salary large enough to compensate for your self-respect.

      Regards,
      Ross

    45. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      When someone takes a job as a telemarketeer they are deliberately setting out to do something they should know pisses people off. So to hell with telemarketeers.

      Most people, when they take a job as a telemarketer (or any other job the performance of which is likely to annoy or offend us) are doing so to feed themselves and their family. Not everyone is lucky enough to have an education, a high level of technical expertise, or the time or money to obtain one. Not everyone needs a fulfilling career. Some people just need a job.

    46. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by el-spectre · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You think folks take jobs as telemarketers because they want to be annoying? Hell no, they need a job.

      I know it's fun to make extreme statements, but a little compassion ( or at least empathy) might be in order here.

      --
      "Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
    47. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by dresgarcia · · Score: 1

      I like the people who complain about not finding a job, but wont take whats offered as a temporary step to findig a better job(IE money to live off of), so they sit on unemployment and complain about how shitty the economy is and how they so poor. Not that this is everyone but I know more than one person like this.
      I don't have the job I WANT either, but I don't hate my job or get paid great. I am just taking steps to place my self a more strategically available position where my company will hopefully thrust me up the ladder to having a less work + more money job. Or just as much/more work + less monotonous(more interesting) work + more money.

    48. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine going for an interview with the last five years of your employment life at SCO.

    49. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by dresgarcia · · Score: 1

      Some people work as telemarketers because its the only job they can get. Its not the people calling you who are responsible, they are just doing their job like the employees at sco. Its the ass that makes them call you that is responsible.
      You think people would clean up shit for a living even though its a shitty job if they didn't NEED the money to LIVE? Of course they wouldn't, justlike people wouldn't work as telemarketers if they could get a job that paid as well elsewhere.

    50. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Dieppe · · Score: 1

      Obligatory Jim Morrison quote?

    51. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by badasscat · · Score: 1

      "Screw 'em"? Nice attitude. What if they have been looking and can't find another job? And my comment gets modded down? Geesh!

      Then they should look elsewhere, or for a different kind of job.

      I just quit (today!) a job that has been killing me (quite literally) for two and a half years. It's left me physically and emotionally drained and has raised my stress levels to the point where I'm having heart palpitations on a regular basis - I've been to the doctor more often because of this job than I ever have in my life for any other reason. It's also been keeping me away from my wife; we've pretty much missed out completely on our first year together.

      One day, I thought, "you know, this is really just not worth it. It's only money." And so I gave my two weeks notice. My wife fully supported me. I have a bit of money saved in the bank and yes, I have contingency plans in case I really just can't find anything, but I also know that there's a possibility that I may end up having to do something completely different, starting at the bottom and working my way up again.

      So it's hard for me to be sympathetic to SCO employees. They'll even get unemployment; I probably won't. But the reality is it's just work, and it's just money. There are more important things in life, and if they don't see that, too bad. I'd never work for a company like SCO, whether or not I could find another job in my field. I'd work at McDonald's first.

      If my company was like SCO I'd have quit a long time ago, new job or not.

    52. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Insightful
      You think folks take jobs as telemarketers because they want to be annoying?

      The original poster didn't say they want to be annoying, he said that they are deliberately pissing people off. And for that, they deserve all of the verbal abuse that they get. If they're going to assist in lowering people's quality of life, they shouldn't expect any better in return.
      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    53. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by fingerfucker · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Besides, a company losing 10% of its ~270 employees is less than the local fast food store going out of business...

      Please state your sources every time you claim a fact!!!!

      According to the RBoC stock coversion, SCO has a business presence in 82 countries with a network of 11,000 resellers and 4,000 developers. While the 11,000 resellers are solution providers, and their developers when dubbed developer network is listed as 8,000 in number, I haven't seen any actual "employees" numbers anywhere.

      You use nothing more but a vague "good" to describe a well-performing economy. That's just pathetic.

      Consumer debt load is at record high, including mortgage debt. According to the same source (USATODAY), "household debt levels rose nearly 11% in 2003" alone!!! This does not tell good things about household balance sheets. In fact, consumer debt levels reveal what the balance sheets wouldn't. In this case, they tell you how sh*t-fscked the Americans got, living today on money they will earn tomorrow for years now and it can't get better.

      And when was the last time you checked the 2003 record-high $380 billion dollar deficit.

      I am not opposing the fact that the economy doesn't suck. But you have not shown it and made close to zero effot (only concrete unemployment numbers)!! You have to know your facts and know what makes a good economy first.

      I will conclude my point by reiterating the fundamentals. I said it once, I'll say it fscking again: State your sources!!!

    54. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by www+www+www · · Score: 1

      You forgot the dollar and the deficit.

      --

      bring it on! --- JFK

    55. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by fingerfucker · · Score: 1
      You forgot the dollar and the deficit.

      You are right on the deficit, but the dollar is getting stronger (you can get more and more EUR for 1 USD).

      A strong dollar however suggests that the U.S. economy is improving. This is happening only because the risk of the interest rates going up has been increasing over time with an expectation of the recovery. International trading balance and international investment overall can however be very vaguely disconnected from measuring the performance of an economy only by focusing on internal metrics. (Even though of course, with economies constantly becoming more global, that's slowly becoming an obsolete approach.)

      Despite the dollar exchange rate suggesting an improving economy, he still did not prove why the U.S. economy doesn't suck right now or in the mid-term future.

    56. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by ElliotLee · · Score: 1, Informative
      Are you saying the deficit is bad? Baloney. That's the media for you - they do anything for a big story.

      On average, the Clinton deficits over the first three years of that administration were much larger than Bush's. The 2004 deficit, adjusted for inflation, is ranked 12th since 1940. The 2004 deficit, as a percent of GDP, is ranked 21st since 1940.

      The media has compared a forecast of surpluses that was calculated while Clinton was president to a forecast of deficits which is being calculated now that Bush is president. However, in the real world, we find that the Bush deficits, when compared in inflation-adjusted terms, are relatively mild. And more importantly, since these deficits are being criticized because of their alleged effect on the overall American economy, when the deficits are presented as a percentage of GDP they are very small. For instance, the projected 2004 deficit as a proportion of GDP is 90% lower than FDR's deficit in the year 1943.

    57. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      McDonald's is always hiring. Or is pride getting in the way of earning a paycheck?

    58. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      The household balance sheet is robust,...

      Did you get this from actual households, or did you just hear it on FOX news? It certainly sounds like a gov't press release.

      ...any SCO employee with ethics would have got out far sooner.

      Even though that may be true, we would have carry that across the board to include the statement, "Any American with ethics would quit paying taxes until we pulled out of Iraq." We can't pick and choose where we want to apply ethics. It has to apply to everybody, or we can't apply it to anybody.

      --
      What?
    59. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      Stare my sources?

      Unemployment and non-farm payrolls: BLS

      SCO employment figures: this is tertiary regarding those layed off; perhaps you'd like to read the latest 10K.

      Consumer debt is a record high... well duh! Debt is a level, and any level should increase over time while the ecnomy grows and inflation is positive. You really get 100% there! The balance of payments is an accounting identity - US concumers are benefitting from cheap imports so money flows out of the country... cheaper goods and services means more can be consumed (good for the consumer) while money flowing out of the country means the US dollar becomes more competitive (falls in the value of the dollar over the past 9 months). GDP numbers for the last few quarters have been very encouraging with excellent production in goods (non-durables and durables alike) and services.

      Please explain, to my naive ears, what makes a good economy. No bullshit please, list facts, not supposition.

    60. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      Did you get this from actual households, or did you just hear it on FOX news?

      Well, the federal reservefederal reserve actually, but I suppose FOX news could cite them too, hence your confusion.

      I agree SCO employees may find it hard getting out, but I disagree they have nad no chance (how long has the SCO saga been running?) to escape or that ethics doesn't matter. Don't agree with Iraq but you're mentioning that is OT and a poor analogy (good to remove Sadam and establish a non-totalitarian regime but way bad to money-grub and try to hang on to power after doing that).

      You may not like to "pick and choose where we want to apply ethics" but I try to do my best.

    61. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Moocowsia · · Score: 1

      No One will curse your name? Hah! Like thats going to happen. Curse you Darl McBride!

      --
      Moo!
    62. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by mec · · Score: 1

      Interesting perspective. However, look at SCO's cash flow from their quarterly reports in 2002 and 2003. SCO would have shut its doors sometime around summer 2003 if they had not found some way to raise money.
      The $20 million or so from Microsoft and Sun, and the $50 million from BayStar, have allowed SCO to keep paying their employees in the money-losing "products and services" division for much longer than they would have if SCO had stuck to their "products and services" business. All these people would have been layed off a year ago.

    63. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      Of course, nobody would think the federal reserve would paint a nice warm fuzzy picture just to keep people from panicking and dumping their credit cards. Like I said "gov't press release".

      ...good to remove Sadam and establish a non-totalitarian regime but way bad to money-grub and try to hang on to power after doing that...

      Uh, please remember that we put him there and propped him up throughout the 80's so we could harrass Iran. There is nothing honorable in what we are doing to the Middle East. If you think we are going to install a non-totalitarian regime in Iraq, I think you will unpleasantly surprised. We are there to protect our "interests". That doesn't necessarily mean non-totalitarian. Unless they choose to play ball. And I thought my analogy was appropriate and on topic since you mentioned ethics. Maybe this would be better, Any computer user with ethics would refuse to run Windows.

      --
      What?
    64. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought my analogy was appropriate and on topic since you mentioned ethics

      Perhaps I should jump in this ethics fest and mention:

      1. Stem cell research

      2. GM crops

      3. WorldCOM and accounting practices.

    65. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      1. Depends how it's done.

      2. Unnecessary, possibly dangerous, definitely mis-managed, with the present business climate - definitely unethical. However, if it never leaves the lab, no problem.

      3. Lock the bastards up! No...the best thing is to take away their corporate charter, and the people in control should lose their property, or at least their bank account. Then lock 'em up!...No...not really. I don't believe in jail for property crimes.

      --
      What?
    66. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by rttichnor · · Score: 1

      is pride getting in the way of earning a paycheck?

      heck no, I'd like to have the McDonald's IT services contract !!!

      Seriously, if I had to work at McDonald's then, so be it. I have invested too many resources into my IT career to do that unless it's a 'last resort'. My original post concerned the people that I know, not myself.

      I'm sure those SCO employees who are losing their job wouldn't be too amused by some AC pussy's comment about working at McDonald's.

      ____________
      Silly mods, trix are for kids. I still got karma to burn.

    67. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by rodac · · Score: 1

      Dont be silly. Why do you want it to end? When it does, all this excellent entertainment will dissaepar down memory lane. Actually, I am disturbed and dissapointed by the recent lack of pressreleases issued by SCO. Can they not afford pressreleases anymore? Lets set up a fund and collect money for SCO, money earmarked so that SCO can only use it to pay for pressreleases.

    68. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 0, Troll

      This is exactly the attitude more people need. Too many people are unforgiving or intolerant of my side-job, which I need to do in order to feed my family.
      I run a small brothel tourism service for people visiting southeast Asia. So many people hate this, but somebody has to, and I need the money. I NEVER take more than 40% for myself so I can keep the take cheap and attract new customers from the states. I get quite a bit of hell- but if my girls weren't prostitutes for 40 dollars US per week, they'd be making sneakers for 10 dollars a week. Most of my employees couldn't work for Nike anymore since they require all their employees to be at least 14. This created a huge local burst in unemployment and had lead to some malnutrition related problems.
      I wouldn't have to do it if Bush wasn't so damn foolish leading the economy to hell.
      But somebody has to be entrepreneurial in this day and age, and the local girls are good at what they do, but everything needs effective marketing. These telemarketers got a bum rap. Not all people who recieve these calls refuse the products offered. It's a viable way of getting the word out about your products.

    69. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by killjoe · · Score: 1

      The economy is a complex beast. Right now a few things are indisputable.

      We are running a record deficit with no plans to reverse it. In fact it will get much worse as the boomers retire.

      We are running a record trade deficit with no indication anywhere on the horizon that it will get better.

      Mean wages have been stagnant for a very long time now.

      There has been a massive net loss of jobs over tha last four years.

      Right now the economy is being propped up by the massive injection of taxpayers dollars. This is not sustainable for the long term. Eventually the increased deficit will cause the interest rates to rise and the dollar to start losing it's value. This is inevitable, it's economics 101.

      Eventually the govt will have to stop spending so much. Once that happens expect a shrinkage in the overall economy which will produce massive layoffs.

      As I mentioned above one the boomers start retiring all shit will hit the fan. I predict violence on the streets as frustrated young people fight back.

      The economy sucks. It's being propped up by smoke and mirrors by the politicians. they will be successful for a little while longer but sooner or later the laws of economics will catch up.

      Save your money now. Get out of debt. Make sure your car and mortgage are paid in full. Stock up on staples. Cut down non essential spending. Get a passport and start investigating where you will immigrate to if things get desparate. It's all downhill from here.

      --
      evil is as evil does
    70. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by Eccles · · Score: 1

      I don't believe in jail for property crimes.

      So stealing cars, breaking and entering, looting banks... no threatened force, no jail time?

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
    71. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by N1KO · · Score: 1

      I guess if they do it for the money they deserve respect and tolerance. Just like spammers and people who start pyramid schemes.

    72. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by corbettw · · Score: 1

      You're assuming that government spending is the end all, be all, of the economy. I suggest you go read some Milton, Von Mises, and Hayek, and rethink your basic assumptions of how economies work.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    73. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by ahodgson · · Score: 1

      You might want to take a look at the US's good friends in Saudi Arabia before you make any assumptions about the sort of regime that will be setup in Iraq.

      It would be hard to find, anywhere on earth, a regime that could be more aptly described as totalitarian.

      The only thing that matters to Washington is how much oil they'll sell and for how much.

    74. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 2, Funny

      Touch me Baystar
      Can't you see that I am not afraid?
      What was that promise that you made?
      Why won't you tell me what MS said?
      What was that promise that you made?

      Now I'm gonna love you, 'till IBM stops the suit
      I'm gonna love you 'till the suits descend from the news
      from Big Blue

      --
      Like what I said? You might like my music
    75. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 1

      I have invested too many resources into my IT career to do that unless it's a 'last resort'.

      Doh!

      Sure, IT will be in demand again, but expect it to wind up a shit-for-pay job, just like automechanics, because your average IT worker is doing a job that is pretty much the same thing, only less understood. ;) Also, expect it to go that way faster than automechanics did, because the industry grew faster than the automotive industry did.

      Hmm, looks like it's almost there already. Won't be too long, then. In fact, there are already plenty of IT folks that are making just a dollar or less an hour over Mickie D's burger flippers. PErsonally, given the choice, I'd rather flip burgers. It's a lot more fun. ;)

      --
      Like what I said? You might like my music
    76. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by killjoe · · Score: 1

      " You're assuming that government spending is the end all, be all, of the economy. "

      Right now it is. The govt is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars of borrowed money into the economy to prop it up. This spending is unsustainable and will stop. Once that happens expect a massive crash.

      --
      evil is as evil does
    77. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by geoskd · · Score: 1
      The economy most certainly does not suck. These are not the dot com days, but that was fantasy land anyway and best not returned to (it will only cause another crash). Non-farm payrolls today were excellent, the unemployment remains at 5.7% (low), interest rates are low and rises over the next two years will be gradual and low in historical terms. The household balance sheet is robust, consumer spending reasonable and corporate investment good. Successful global trade has the benefit of keeping prices of goods and services down allowing income to be spent on even more.

      The Economy most certainly does suck. The unemployment statistic is badly skewed because it does not, and never has counted people like myself who graduated and either could not find work in our field, or found work and were promplty laid off before they qualified for unemployment benefits. Furthermore, someone who was making 55K per year who is now working at Mcdonalds, is no longer considered by any government statistics. The vast majority of those seeking work, are the recent grads. 75% of my graduating class of almost 2000 students is still looking for work, and of the remainder, many would consider themselves under-employed. The year after mine was worse, and this year is looking to be just as bad. We are graduating hundreds of thousands of people every year who will remain under employed or just plain un-employed and not show up on any statistic. Mean while, cost of gas is going thorugh the roof because our idiot of a president feels that assaulting a foriegn nation to save his daddys good image was the best course of action. Cost of housing is going through the roof anywhere within an hours drive of a decent paying job so that it is impossible to live close to your job, or even survive without a car.
      This used to be such a *nice* country to live in too.

      the worst part is that the reality is simple: Those jobs are never comming back.

      -=geoskd
      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
    78. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by corbettw · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. According to this page from the Office of Management and Budget, total government spending from all sources accounts for 28% of GDP in the US. Private spending accounts for the rest. So, again, go educate yourself on the basics of economics before spouting off on /.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    79. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by digitalmuse · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry if you interpretted my response as taking an opposed position to your original post. I think we both understand that on the individual level this is ++ungood for SCO's employees and a waste of time, money, resources and ink for everyone (Linus, *nix, RedHat, IBM, AutoZone, cat, dog, pony, etc...).
      I however am willing to take the somewhat less popular, and I'd believe slightly more pragmatic, view that these events are inevitable and addressing the issue at it's root will overall result in less long-term damage.
      No one wants to be out of a job because the boardroom is playing fast and loose with stock options and unrealistic business plans. But seeing as Darl, Canopy & Co. have embarked on the present course of action, I don't think it's realistic to just wail over it and complain. Find the bozos who endorse this destructive strip-mining of IP, marketshare and goodwill, shoot out their financial kneecaps and put their heads on stakes to ward off the next MBA-nitwit who thinks that such actions are 'good business practices'.

      yes, the whole thing stinks and nothing good will come of it, but how much more would it stink, and how much worse would it be if we let them run unchecked. sometimes the surgeon has to sacrifice tissue to save the patient, he may not like it, but it's a necessary evil.

      --
      "If I wanted your input on my pet project, I'd stick my hand up your ass and use you like a sock-puppet." - Muse
    80. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      So, again, go educate yourself on the basics of economics before spouting off on /.

      Maybe you should go educate yourself on some basic timekeeping. The page you linked to contains figures from 2001, it is currently 2004. A lot has happened in three years. I suggest you go find some CURRENT facts.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
    81. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by corbettw · · Score: 1

      Pffl. Do you honestly think the percentage of GDP that is government spending has changed significantly in three years?

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    82. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      Pffl. Do you honestly think the percentage of GDP that is government spending has changed significantly in three years?

      Yes. Do they not have newspapers where you live or something? One would hope you at least heard about Sept. 11th?

      link
      link
      link
      link
      link
      link

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
    83. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by corbettw · · Score: 1

      *sigh*

      According to these documents, again from the OMB, the Federal budget for FY2005 will be $2.4 trillion. According to the good ol' CIA World Factbook, the US GDP in 2002 was $10.45 trillion. Even without factoring in the 2.45% GDP growth rate the WFB lists, that means that next year's Federal budget is only 23% of the total GDP.

      I could take the time to figure out the actual GDP is, and even throw in the numbers for state and local governments, but these numbers are close enough for Slashdot. Suffice to say, none of this supports the idea that the government drives the economy in any major way.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    84. Re:Thank "The Doors.".. by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      According to these documents [gpo.gov], again from the OMB, the Federal budget for FY2005 will be $2.4 trillion.

      I suggest you look at how much money we're ACTUALLY spending. The budget for 2005 could be $20, but that wouldn't reflect or ACTUAL CURRENT SPENDING. The current administration doesn't seem to be very good at sticking to any sort of budget.

      Suffice to say, none of this supports the idea that the government drives the economy in any major way.

      Well that's another argument, but one I'm pretty confident you would loose. Even if the gov't didn't make laws which governed the economy or print money, throwing around a "mere" 23% of our nations GDP has a bit of an effect on our economy, much bigger than say, Walmart.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
  3. So the moral of this story.... by LordPhantom · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....is Canadian shareholders are wiser than the US ones?

    1. Re:So the moral of this story.... by slam+smith · · Score: 4, Funny
      Well if you look at it in another way.

      Canadian investment in SCO - 30 million
      American investment in SCO - 20 million

      Canadian Population ~ 30 million
      American Population ~ 300 million

      So on a per capita basis Canadians are 15 times more responsible for the SCO mess

      :-)

    2. Re:So the moral of this story.... by The+Lynxpro · · Score: 1

      "....is Canadian shareholders are wiser than the US ones?"

      Don't you mean "...are Canadian shareholders wiser than US shareholders?"

      I was under the impression the Canadian educational system was superior to the US model. Hmmm... :)

      --
      "Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
    3. Re:So the moral of this story.... by Performer+Guy · · Score: 1

      Um yea... riiiight, they've just managed to half their investment, that's real shrewd of them.

    4. Re:So the moral of this story.... by way2trivial · · Score: 1

      if I've read it right, they converted their shares at a 13.50 per share value, that means they lost over half the value of their investment in a fell swoop, just to get out....

      --
      every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    5. Re:So the moral of this story.... by LordPhantom · · Score: 0

      #1 - I'm not a Canadian #2 - "The moral of the story are Canadian shareholders wiser than US shareholders" The >TITLESENTANCE FRAGMENT go together to make a FULL SENTANCE. "So the moral of this story is Canadian shareholders are wiser than the US ones?" Go back to the grammar-nazi hole you crawled out of.

  4. Where have you been? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Begins layoffs"? Where have you been, SCO has been laying off staff for months now.

    In Santa Cruz, for example, they sliced their tech staff by like 80% or something.

    1. Re:Where have you been? by Buh-Zard · · Score: 1

      10% of the workforce to be laid off? What's that- 10 pissed off lawyers? Seriously - should be some interesting leaked memos once this happens.

    2. Re:Where have you been? by Adriax · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but they replaced them with pit vipers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H lawyers. So until now they haven't had a net loss of employees.

      I guess the litigation business model is failing them.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
    3. Re:Where have you been? by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      SCO is a litigation firm now. So it only makes since for them to "trim the fat" by getting rid of non-legal staff.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    4. Re:Where have you been? by SoSueMe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Read the bottom of the "News" item.
      "Source: The SCO Group"

      That's why it began with: "The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") (Nasdaq: SCOX - News), a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions and the owner of the UNIX operating system,....

      I almost choked when I read the first line.

    5. Re:Where have you been? by somethinghollow · · Score: 1

      They are outsourcing as many jobs to India as possible. They had to cut costs in some areas, such as "Programming" and "Public Relations", to push money into the "Frivolous Litigation" department. Now, though, they are going to outsource "Programming" departments from India to the Africa planes or the Mojave Desert. "Public Relations" was going to be handed to one of Sadam Hussein's sons, but since their deaths, they are contemplating outsourcing it to Donald Rumsfeild.

    6. Re:Where have you been? by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 5, Funny
      In Santa Cruz, for example, they sliced their tech staff by like 80% or something.

      How will this affect the release schedule for the next minor versions of the Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels? I've been anticipating Linux 2.6 settling down a bit before I switch and this news of SCO reducing it's tech staff by such a huge amount causes me to question investing so much of my time and energy into upgrading.

      If SCO ceases to exist, will Linux still be available!? Will they open source the code so that a group of volunteers can saddle up and take the reins from this dedicated staff of SCO developers who have put so much time and effort into making Linux the great operating system that it is? Inquiring minds want to know the answers to these questions damnit.

    7. Re:Where have you been? by SoSueMe · · Score: 2, Informative
      Screw it. I can't mod this thread anymore so, I might as well post the latest issue of "Darl Spins Bad News"

      "The SCO Group Receives From Royal Bank of Canada Notice of Conversion and Transfer of Shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock
      Friday May 7, 2:00 pm ET

      LINDON, Utah, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") (Nasdaq: SCOX - News), a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions and the owner of the UNIX operating system, received on May 5, 2004 notice that Royal Bank of Canada has elected to convert 10,000 shares of SCO's Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock it currently holds into a total of 740,740 shares of SCO's common stock. The conversion will occur as permitted under SCO's Certificate of Designation, Preferences and Rights relating to the Series A-1 stock. The Series A-1 stock was purchased at a price of $1,000 per share, and will be converted to common stock based on a conversion price of $13.50 per share.

      Additionally, Royal Bank of Canada informed SCO that it has sold 20,000 shares of Series A-1 stock to BayStar Capital II, L.P., which currently also holds shares of Series A-1 stock. After completion of the conversion, Royal Bank of Canada will have no equity interest in SCO other than the shares of common stock it receives from the conversion, and BayStar Capital II, L.P. will be the sole remaining holder of outstanding shares of Series A-1 stock.

      About SCO

      The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX - News) helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow their businesses with UNIX business solutions. Headquartered in Lindon, Utah, SCO has a worldwide network of more than 11,000 resellers and 4,000 developers. SCO Global Services provides reliable localized support and services to all partners and customers. For more information on SCO products and services visit http://www.sco.com.

      SCO and the associated SCO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The SCO Group, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of their respective owners.

      Source: The SCO Group"

      Emphasis mine.

      Now, if this doesn't have all the characteristics of an open forum press flood, I don't know what does. Thank you, YaHoo Finance! You bought it!
    8. Re:Where have you been? by Anonym0us+Cow+Herd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know how you come up with 10 pissed off lawyers.

      Last year, in June, but I think even up until October, SCO claimed to have 330 employees.

      When the recent layoffs were announced, they said they were laying off "way less than ten percent" of their 275 employees.

      275? I thought they had 330?

      Since SCO currently has 275 employees, the "way under ten percent" must mean they are laying off 27 people, which would be 9.81%.

      This leaves them with 248. This means they have lost 82 people (330 - 248) or 24.84% ("way under 25%" using SCO speak) of their workforce in less than a year. Perhaps even in just six months.

      Now since SCO didn't have layoffs until now, how do you suppose they dropped from 330 to 275 employees in the meantime? (I won't say anything about rats and sinking ships.)

      Now why do I just bindly assume in SCO speak that "way under 10 percent" actually means 9.81%? Because if it were under nine percent, they would have said "way under nine percent!". So instead of laying off 27, they could have laid off 26 (9.45%) or laid off 5 (9.09%), in which case my above quackulations would need adjustment.

      --
      The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
    9. Re:Where have you been? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      • to the Africa planes

      You mean like Marklar?

    10. Re:Where have you been? by gmuslera · · Score: 1

      Laying off is just a way to lose work force. Maybe the remaining ones just had some kind of moral and just quit by themselves.

    11. Re:Where have you been? by arose · · Score: 1

      In the meantime The Open Group still have their heads in the sand and are pretending that it has nothing to do with them...

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    12. Re:Where have you been? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe remaining ones left the sinking ship when they found better jobs (which could be ANYTHING, consider prospects at SCO). There need not be idealistic soapboxing going on; geez, even a blind idiot would see how useful it is to sink with SCO.

    13. Re:Where have you been? by w1r3sp33d · · Score: 1

      Soon the only thing left at SCO will be roaches and suits sitting on piles of cash.

    14. Re:Where have you been? by XorNand · · Score: 2, Interesting

      +5 Funny on Slashdot. If this were a post on a CIO new site, it would probably be +5 Insightful. I like seeing SCO get kicked in the nuts as much as the next geek. However, understand that to the vast majority of people who only mentally process buzzwords "SCO", "Linux" and "legal problems" are mentally interlinked. This is not a good thing for GNU/Linux any way you slice it.

      Geeks should be praying for this SCO thing to go away quietly, not for them to be flogged in the town square.

      --
      Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
    15. Re:Where have you been? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey. I'm the guy who bought a 5 year support contract for SCO UnitedLinux!

      (Seriously, SCO/Caldera was a huge Linux contributor in the early years.)

    16. Re:Where have you been? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Laying off 10% of their workforce?

      I wonder where he's going to apply next?

    17. Re:Where have you been? by TopShelf · · Score: 1

      10% of the workforce to be laid off? What's that- 10 pissed off lawyers?

      No, I believe the proper terminology here is "women and children to the lifeboats!"

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
  5. who? by name773 · · Score: 3, Funny

    man those linux people must be real meanies... harming an innocent nice company like sco. ugh.

    1. Re:who? by cswiii · · Score: 1

      Well, that's certainly what Mr. Pretenderle seems to think.

      I hope someone frames that diatribe for posterity. I think it might well rank up there, eventually, with the likes of "Dewey Defeats Truman".

    2. Re:who? by Talonius · · Score: 1

      Wow. I've never read anything by him before but I doubt I will now. The column justifies his opinion of SCO because "..Linux users are attacking him in various ways."

      Sorry. There's bad apples in every case, Linux or Microsoft. Go on a pro Microsoft site and spout a few bad things off about it.

      So who's religious fervor is blinding them now? His, because he refuses to see what everyone else seems to be able to see? That SCO has no case? Or the Linux community -- working worldwide, across boundaries of racism, nationalism, across different religions and languages -- who work together to perpetuate the lies that Linux has stolen nothing?

      My. He's quite the idiot isn't he? Oops. I guess I just "attacked" him.

      Still, I'm just doing what he does. Call a spade a spade. If it walks like an idiot, talks like an idiot, and acts like an idiot.. I call it an idiot.

      --
      My reality check bounced.
  6. 10%? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    As Chairman Mao says, "the journey of a thousand li begins with one step."

    --------
    Free mobile porn

    1. Re:10%? by artwells · · Score: 5, Funny

      How do you say "off a short pier" in Chinese?

    2. Re:10%? by thomasa · · Score: 1

      yingli

    3. Re:10%? by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 1

      Um, "off a sholt piel"?

      --
      Like what I said? You might like my music
  7. Finally! by tweakt · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's about damn time... I guess they couldn't keep the air in the stock price any longer.

    1. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I strongly suspect that the announcement was intended to hold up their share price a little longer.

  8. 10 Percent of their workforce! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Man, that's a lot of attorneys out of work!

    1. Re:10 Percent of their workforce! by Jason1729 · · Score: 1

      Maybe they're join rambus and threaten to sue everyone using DDR memory.

      Jason
      ProfQuotes

    2. Re:10 Percent of their workforce! by kidgenius · · Score: 1

      Or Infinium Labs and sue everyone that mentions your product (or at least the lack thereof)

    3. Re:10 Percent of their workforce! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, no - you've got it wrong. No attoneys were fired.

      I think their workforce USED to be 90% attorneys.

      With 100% attorneys, they're a prime example of the new breed of IT company. The IT industry used to be heavy on the technical side, but the new trend is to be heavy on the (protection of) information side.

      (the above is meant to be funny)

    4. Re:10 Percent of their workforce! by symbolic · · Score: 1


      Looks like there is some justice after all.

  9. Yesssss by Animaniac · · Score: 0, Troll

    The beginning of the end! It is indeed the "Year of Linux."

    1. Re:Yesssss by bigjocker · · Score: 1

      You want to install a network card? Better set aside a weekend to recompile the kernel and then spend countless frustrating hours trying to configure everything.

      Linux is not intended to be used by you. Or at least none of the developer distros. If you want a easy to use linux distro then pay for it. Any linux expert would have the network card working inless than 5 minutes in any of the development oriented distros.

      Plug the same card into a windows machine and you're browsing the web in under 5 minutes.

      Which is a testimonial of the real reason: drivers. If hardware manufacturers would provide the linux distributions with drivers, it would be as easy (or even easier) than in windows. But it is also relative. I have spent days to no end trying to install new hardware in my wife's computer (Windows XP), but I install any new hardware instantly in my gentoo box.

      It's just not worth it. I'll spend the $1600 on a new powerbook (that will run OSX and includes an apple WiFi card). Anything is better that continuing to struggle with linux.

      Maybe that's the best solution for your problem. Linux is not for everyone. It is designed for me, and for a lot of other's that need (and want) 100% control over their hardware.

      --
      Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
    2. Re:Yesssss by justsomebody · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actualy, not.

      As one investor is changing non-voting for voting stocks, and the other (Baystar is related to MS) proclaiming that SCO is not experienced to deal these legal situations (and buying first ones stocks).

      In my opinion Baystar;)MS is aiming to prolong this situation as long as possible, and thus buying shares from RBC.

      There might be the change, but probably only about who is leading this fiasco.

      But to be truthfull, I really don't understand why they prolong this. There was no benefit and Linux is still gaining in the same measure as it was (there was some research that showed that)

      --
      Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
    3. Re:Yesssss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And your personal problems are related to this SCO topic...how?

    4. Re:Yesssss by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Ummm... You tried one distro on an old powerbook and could not get it to work so it is useless on a desktop????
      Okay I have an old Dell 600c celeron runing suse 9. I can surf the web, get email, chat, play frozen bubble, develop software in c++, update and work on our companies website, listen to music and writer letters.
      I have an IBM thinkpad with a P4 that runs Suse 9 that I also do all that on plus play bzflag every now and then.
      Since I can do all that then we must come to one or more of these conclusions.
      1. This is a usless troll
      2. YellowDog does not work well on old powerbooks
      3. You are drawing you conclusion with no where near enough inforamtion.
      4. I am so much smarter than you are that it just is not funny.

      Frankly OS/X is a great operating system. But your statment is as usless as you feel Linux is.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    5. Re:Yesssss by Jason1729 · · Score: 1

      Any linux expert would have the network card working inless than 5 minutes in any of the development oriented distros.

      Exactly my point. The OP said this is the year of linux, I said it isn't. It seems that you agree with me.

      Your reply is kind of funny, you are blindly defending linux and attacking me for saying it's not the greatest thing ever invented, yet at the same time your attacks prove me point. If linux is not for me (with a CS degree), it sure isn't for most users.

    6. Re:Yesssss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use linux, and I haven't had any great problem getting it working with my hardware. I know a lot of people who have problems with their windows boxes (some of my friends) and with their Macs (my mom). A lot of my windows using friends may be up and running windows preinstalls out of the box, but they need help when it comes time for an OS upgrade or when their computer accumulates so much malware that it locks up completely. So I don't see what the difference is really - most users need support no matter what they are doing.

      Most of the technically oriented people I know don't have that many problems with getting Linux to run.

  10. start with... by el_diavalo · · Score: 1, Funny

    they should start the layoffs with darl and all those damn lawyers... adaptation of an old joke - what darl mcbride and 1/10 of the sco lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? - a good start.

    --
    You can lead a horse to prune juice, but you can't make him drink it. Nor would you want to.
    1. Re:start with... by gradedcheese · · Score: 0

      and how about some jail time for extorsion, etc?

  11. Smilin' like the Enzyte Guy by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Funny

    This news has me smilin' like the Enzyte Guy!

  12. Bre-X by Jason1729 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The subject says it all (at least to any Candians reading this).

    Jason
    ProfQuotes

    1. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 5, Interesting
      You got it. Being a Canadian myself I would like to bask in the glory of us as a whole being smarter, better, more educated, more richeous etc., but...

      Although it starts amongst joyous meadows and cheerful flowers, truly great evil this path leads to. Evil bearing names like Abu Gharib and My Lai.

      So just note that it was Royal Bank who against all common sense invested in SCO in the first place. They are just now growing cold feet and preparing to run for the door.

    2. Re:Bre-X by leoxx · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      That's why I always follow the rule that says if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Anyone who invests in the stock market should keep this in mind before they throw money at companies like SCO and BreX.

    3. Re:Bre-X by MarkGriz · · Score: 0, Redundant

      +1, Insighful.
      (Damn...just wasted my mod points on some useless crap)

      OT, but there's an interesting episode of "Masterminds" running on CourtTV which gives the details on the Bre-X story. Pretty damn clever.

      --
      Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
    4. Re:Bre-X by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 1

      I think it says more about the rest of the world than Canada and the US.

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
    5. Re:Bre-X by Eggplant62 · · Score: 3, Funny
      You got it. Being a Canadian myself I would like to bask in the glory of us as a whole being smarter, better, more educated, more richeous etc., but...


      unfortunately, we can't spell for shit.
    6. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He probably the same age I am within a few years. The education system went on a "freedom of expression" kick where they got the idea that spelling and grammar stifled a kid's creativity.

      They didn't even try to teach use spelling and grammar, and a teacher could have been fired for correcting it (even if they just pointed out the mistake and didn't deduct marks).

    7. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...cryptic, humour here that I missed, my cautionary...
      See, spell-checkers work wonders, don't they?

    8. Re:Bre-X by mini+me · · Score: 0, Redundant

      As long as the point is made, who cares how it's spelt?

    9. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      unfortunately, we can't spell for shit

      Yes, I misspelled one word in there. So be it, just more to the point of what I was saying. We are no better then the rest of the planet, spelling errors included.

      For this monstrous calamity of an offense, I trust that my trial on charges of treason to the sacred cow of national superiority will be short and execution swift and merciful.

    10. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Righteous.

      Though I suppose richeous could be a new word.

    11. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hooked On Phonics worked for me!

    12. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 1, Insightful
      See, spell-checkers work wonders, don't they?

      I see, so you are objecting to the message based on what a word in it was spelled like. I am afraid that I cannot compete with this, such clearly blinding fire of wisdom and logic that is your mind.

      Forgive me for I have trespassed on the sacred ground of thought in English language, a field that is defended fiercely by truly fearsome Palladins: the spelling Nazis.

    13. Re:Bre-X by Xoro · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      ...a field that is defended fiercely by truly fearsome Palladins: the spelling Nazis.

      Don't you mean "truly fearsome Paladins"?

      --
      Kill, Tux, kill!
    14. Re:Bre-X by overloadhz · · Score: 2, Funny

      Spelling issue aside, your point is well taken. However there is more than a hint of moral ascendancy in your comments. Thanks, we all needed your "cautionary message" to reinvigorate our sense of white American guilt...

    15. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      Don't you mean "truly fearsome Paladins"?

      Is that a sword or a toilet plunger you are holding, Sir Knight? Herr Knight?

      How does one address a spelling Nazi exactly?

    16. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Luxuriating in your own sense of righteousness isn't any more attractive, believe me -- and far less well-founded.

    17. Re:Bre-X by MikeCapone · · Score: 4, Funny

      unfortunately, we can't spell for shit.

      At least we can do that in more than one language!

    18. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They didn't even try to teach use spelling and grammar, and a teacher could have been fired for correcting it (even if they just pointed out the mistake and didn't deduct marks).

      Please tell me you're joking.

    19. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Herr Generalrechtschreibungsmarschall

    20. Re:Bre-X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In the stock market, the rule is slightly different: If it looks to good to be true, invest early, and cash out quickly, because there's a million suckers that are going to inflate that stock before it crashes down.

    21. Re:Bre-X by fingerfucker · · Score: 1
      Yes, I misspelled one word in there. So be it, just more to the point of what I was saying. We are no better then the rest of the planet, spelling errors included.

      For this monstrous calamity of an offense, I trust that my trial on charges of treason to the sacred cow of national superiority will be short and execution swift and merciful.

      Why the fuck does this guy get modded down as flaimbait.... Did he spit shit on that guy who shoved a spelling mistake in his face? No.

      To any other fucker with mod points, read it over before you do something... Otherwise this will be another perfect example of why /. is bound only to continue loosing its attraction as time passes.

    22. Re:Bre-X by jmt9581 · · Score: 2, Funny
      You can shit in more than one language?

      ..... No!

      :)

      --

      My blog

    23. Re:Bre-X by ergo98 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So just note that it was Royal Bank who against all common sense invested in SCO in the first place

      It's called a hedge, and it's absolutely rudimentary investing. You see in the one hand RBC has a lot of stock in organizations that would be seriously financially penalized if RBC won their case, so in the other hand they wanted to balance that by holding some of the potential threat -- if SCO somehow won, RBC would have a winner to slightly offset the losers.

      RBC is cashing out because it's become obvious that SCO is sitting on nothing but promises so there is little risk to the other equity.

    24. Re:Bre-X by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      Must...preview...

      "seriously financially penalized if SCO won their case"

    25. Re:Bre-X by Tsian · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thank you, but thats Non!

    26. Re:Bre-X by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      You eat little pieces of shit for breakfast?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    27. Re:Bre-X by ThousandStars · · Score: 1
      better, more educated, more richeous...

      They are just now growing cold feet...

      Three cheers for Canadian Education, as exemplified by IgnoramusMaximus!

    28. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 1
      It's called a hedge...

      This would sound plausible if it were not for the fact that the very investment was decreasing the value of all their other holdings, just by creation of an illusion of a possible merit to the SCO case. Thus by putting money down on infinitely small chance of SCO winning, they guaranteed fear and anxiety among investors of all their other sane assets. Not to mention that that sum of $50 million was a lifeline allowing SCO to keep slinging their mud.

      The hedge theory falls apart at closer examination, and what remains is an uninformed, panicked, knee-jerk reaction of some pointy-hair managment clown who read with terror in "IT for Dummies" that SCO "owns linux" and thus he was "missing the boat". And the rest is history...

    29. Re:Bre-X by greenguy · · Score: 1

      See, spell-checkers work wonders, don't they?

      Wait, the post page has not one, but multiple spellcheckers? I never noticed! In fact, here I am on the post page, and I still can't find it.

      --
      What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
    30. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 1
      Three cheers for Canadian Education, as exemplified by IgnoramusMaximus!

      I dont know about you, but me, I got my schooling from the McKenzie brothers. Its a beauty, eh?

    31. Re:Bre-X by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 1

      At least we can do that in more than one language!

      Vous etes no bueno por caca, asshole.

      Je suis American. Tengo grande huevos, puto.

      Good-bye.

      --
      Like what I said? You might like my music
    32. Re:Bre-X by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 1

      Well, anytime you decide to post either correcting someone's spelling or spouting elitist "Oh lookee I'm smarter than someone else", your post immediately becomes open to attack for even the slightest mistake. Even forgivable typos will come under attack at that point.

      So, from an American to a Canadian who's having a little trouble learning this lesson, next time you spout off about how wonderful you are for any reason, double-check your post for spelling and grammer errors.

      It'll save you the trouble of looking like an ass later when you try to defend an obviously indefensible position.

      --
      Like what I said? You might like my music
    33. Re:Bre-X by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      Thus by putting money down on infinitely small chance of SCO winning, they guaranteed fear and anxiety among investors of all their other sane assets

      Remember that RBC invested quietly -- they didn't put out a boastful press release proclaiming their faith in SCO (in fact when their investment came to light they actively sought to dispel any notion that they are supporting the case). Most large banks make hundreds of thousands of investments, and this one just got noticed because SCO=satan.

      Not to mention that that sum of $50 million was a lifeline allowing SCO to keep slinging their mud.

      At the time of the investment, no one really knew what cards SCO was carrying (though there was a presumption that they were credible as it would be tantamount to baseless blackmail otherwise) - if it wasn't RBC, there was certainly tonnes of other investors that would have shored up SCO to sit if it had legs.

    34. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 2, Insightful
      you spout off about how wonderful you are

      No, actually I learned a lesson that ./ readers do not read past the first line of any post. The message actually was about how we Canadians are not wonderful and if we think we are better, we will end up doing stuff which our American cousins are not so proud of. And immediately I got hammered to the ground for a spelling mistake. Quite a sad lesson. And totally unexpected one. It was an indefensible position indeed, except it was my spelling Nazi attackers who were in it.

    35. Re:Bre-X by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 1
      Remember that RBC invested quietly

      No I dont. I remember grand press releases and boastful posturing coming out of SCO, not to mention Darl essentially using a megaphone next to the general public's ear at the time of Baystar/RoyalBank investment. Just about every major IT rag and quite few financial ones had a notice about it. And very few of them with any sort of critical tone in them.

    36. Re:Bre-X by Brainchild · · Score: 1
      Je suis American. Tengo grande huevos, puto.

      Translation: Jesuits are American. They tango grandly with eggs and practice golf.

      --

      :: "I am non-refutable." --Enik the Altrusian ::

  13. ha! by Saturninus · · Score: 1, Funny

    That will teach SCO to screw with Linux!

  14. Intellectual Property Claims? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He said BayStar had reached "the conclusion that SCO should focus its resources on its most valuable asset: its intellectual property claims."

    I'm sorry, which intellectual property claims were those?

    Does Baystar believe their claims of their source code in Linux are meritable?

    1. Re:Intellectual Property Claims? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they just believe that SCO's intellectual property claims are more valuable than anything else SCO still has.

    2. Re:Intellectual Property Claims? by jimicus · · Score: 1

      It's a calculated risk on the part of baystar, based on business logic.

      Business logic says "you don't take on a behemoth like IBM without a damn good case, therefore they must have a good case, therefore they're a pretty good risk". Unfortunately it doesn't always take much account of the sheer quantities of crack some managers smoke.

    3. Re:Intellectual Property Claims? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Methinks it would be smart not to say "SCO's IP claims are meritless" while you still own so many shares of SCO stock. They can tell the truth AFTER they get their money back.

      Then again, it would be SMARTER never to have had the stocks in the first place...

    4. Re:Intellectual Property Claims? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The obvious conclusion is that SCO does not have many viable income gathering assets. And between the choice of litigation and services, litigation has the greatest possibility of performing with dollars.

    5. Re:Intellectual Property Claims? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, which intellectual property claims were those?

      Well, there are a lot of "claims". It remains to be seen if they're particularly valuable though.

    6. Re:Intellectual Property Claims? by bonch · · Score: 0

      You people need to get out more and here formal business language. That's how businesses speak.

      He didn't say the claims had merit. He merely commented that SCO should concentrate its business on those intellectual property claims--it's all they've got.

  15. How nice. by corporate_ai · · Score: 2

    It couldn't have happened to a nicer group of people.

    --
    "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    1. Re:How nice. by The+I+Shing · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Yikes... spell-check your sig, dear friend.

      Way off-topic, but eh...

      --
      You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
    2. Re:How nice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah don't forget there's a lot of innocent people working at SCO that don't necessarily share their managment's opinions and legal battles. This means there's a lot of regular working people that no longer have jobs because of this. The people that should lose their jobs because of this won't. They'll be there till the end and richer because of it while their workers get the shaft.

    3. Re:How nice. by corporate_ai · · Score: 1

      Thanks. That's what I get for blindly copying and pasting.

      --
      "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  16. I again refer you to my post dt. July 02 by unixwin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The link Slasdot.org

    or just the quote below...


    Differently seen companies chasing their tails in copyright infringments, trade protocol violations and intellectual property rights are generally the ones which are going to fall pretty soon.

    Short on cash and not being able to earn/fund the millions they were used to in the dotgone era they are metamorphosing into scavengers and opportunists ....
    SCO is a shining example The crummy economy is bringing out the best in a lot of Companys, their legal team thinks, "we are getting irrelevant (as a team) , lets think up something to make some money and make sure we dont' get laid off," "hmmm... patent # 5551212 seems to be worth looking into" and there starts their Road to Hell [lyricsdepot.com]

    Easy money (or so they think) ,lot of publicity (for sure) and a lot of hits on their website , so there's a new concept for you

    the legal team is now the marketing team

    --
    -- everyones not everybody and neither is everybody like everyone.
    1. Re:I again refer you to my post dt. July 02 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I dunno, being litigious bastards makes a disturbing amount of sense from a purely business perspective.

      Litiguous bastards:

      1. Don't need customers, just people to sue.
      2. Don't need to keep good customer relations, just to maintain enough paperwork to sue (former) customers.
      3. Don't need to support a product.
      4. Don't need to develop a product.
      5. Don't need extensive infrastructure. Or an office for that matter, just a desk in a law firm. (Or, take the Simpson's Approach: "Hey, you, get out of my office!" - Lionel Hutts to Homer Simpson, lying in a tipped-over phone booth)
      6. Don't need a lot of capital, just enough to keep the lawyers going until the 'big payoff' comes in the form of a win/settlement.

      Basically, it flies in the face of almost every rule in the business book. You get to make money without doing anything productive towards the economy (no job creation, no product in use, no VALUE). And, of course, this is why litigious bastards MUST fail. We can't get people believing that the world can run off of bullshit and hot air. If you make money, you should make money by DOING something, at least in the bigger picture.

      Even other companies that make money from 'IP' (say, music or software) puts out something for people to use/consume/enjoy/work on. Litiguous bastards don't contribute to the economic equation, they try to rob it, try to leech it dry.

      SCO must be ground into the dust, same as RAMBUS.

    2. Re:I again refer you to my post dt. July 02 by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      there starts their Road to Hell

      Or their Highway to Hell, even..

    3. Re:I again refer you to my post dt. July 02 by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      SCO must be ground into the dust, same as RAMBUS.

      Funny thing that... I just saw an article in the past few days that RAMBUS is suing memory manufacturers under an anti-trust heading.

      IIRC, the best one-liner in the article was to the effect that RAMBUS was complaining that the memory manufacturers didn't use the RAMBUS technology because the manufacturers didn't want to pay the licensing fees. And RAMBUS felt that this was unfair.

      Um, it *is* still a free market right? Which means my company does not have to choose a particular technology if I don't like the licensing terms/fees (and there's an alternate technology that works as well and has nicer licensing).

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
  17. and so it begins by no-arg+constructor · · Score: 1

    layoffs, people divesting stock, we all knew it was a matter of time, and like always, "the industry" is behind in its observations. sco has no allies now, even baystar is hinting at letting go. this will probably mean a dismissal of all the suits eventually (hopefully with extreme prejudice), and linux will have had more advertising than money could buy.

  18. Not a Good Stock to Own by jcrash · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ouch - currently, 50% of the total float of SCOX (the SCO Stock) is shorted.

    So, for every person betting it is going to go up, there is someone betting it will go down.

    --
    I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
    1. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by ezzzD55J · · Score: 1

      How about put options?

    2. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by mindstrm · · Score: 1

      I don't think sco has anything on the options market at all.. I tried to find some on cboe a while ago, nothing there.

    3. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by Jonboy+X · · Score: 4, Informative

      The scary thing about that statistic is the idea of a short squeeze. Basically, that means that if the price rises a bit, maybe some people are forced to buy back the stock, 'cuz they don't have enough money in their margin account to cover the stock's value anymore. This buy bumps the price some more, and now the next guy has to cover. It's hardly ever an issue, but 50% short interest is pretty much unheard of.

      Of course, for this to happen, the stock price would actually have to go *up* first...

      --

      "In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
    4. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by jjo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not only that, but the short ratio is almost 14 days. That means that if everyone else stopped buying, and all the shorts started buying to cover their positions, it would take two weeks of normal trading volume to cover them all. We still may see someone try a short squeeze.

      Aside from that, it seems that the only reason that people are still holding SCOX is to get some more money out of whoever has been manipulating the stock price for the past year. That's the only explanation I can see for SCOX not being the penny stock it was (and will be again).

    5. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by schon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      for every person betting it is going to go up, there is someone betting it will go down.

      And as ~46% of the stock is held by insiders, it tells me that a whopping 92% of shareholders who aren't insiders think it's gonna go down.

      Thems not good numbers. :o)

    6. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by I+Be+Hatin' · · Score: 1
      How about put options?

      Well, SCOX doesn't have any tradable options, so the point is moot, but in any case...

      The leverage is nice, but the timing would be the difficult part. With options, time literally is money, so you pay more for an option that expires later. This means that if you know that SCOX will dump at a certain date, you can make a killing. But if you only know "in the long run, SCOX will go bankrupt", this doesn't really help you. You'd have to buy an option with a long expiration date, which would cost you through the nose, and probably make the option trade unprofitable.

      --
      I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
    7. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting


      It's hardly ever an issue, but 50% short interest is pretty much unheard of.

      Hmmm,

      NFLX is even more shorted and their prospects are much better than SCOX's.

    8. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You miss understand numbers. I'm not expert, but there are 14.42M shares and 3.95M shorted according to yahoo. That already doesn't match. Second, you can't short a stock without someone else willing to go long. Someone has to have the share to loan them to you. Actually, shorts aren't considered shareholders, but the longs are.

    9. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by Performer+Guy · · Score: 1

      No, you must settle after 2 weeks. They don't buy back because they have no margin, that's just a margin call and can happen any time. They buy back because they must within 14 days to settle, they have all promised to sell someone the stock at the price when they shorted the stock. 2 weeks is a short period of time, that's why it's called a "short" position.

    10. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by franzzup · · Score: 2, Informative

      You are seriously confused. :-)
      I am short SCOX and have held a part of my short position for over a year. Indeed, an advantage of taking a short position vs. buying put options is that you can generally hold your short position if the stock takes longer to tank than you anticipated, while options have a fixed expiration date.
      Of course, as has been mentioned, there are no options on SCOX anyway.

    11. Re:Not a Good Stock to Own by Performer+Guy · · Score: 1

      Hmm never knew this, thanks for the info. I'd have shorted them myself had I known.

  19. What do you bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... that none of those layed off are lawyers?

  20. beautiful new world... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and yet, it's really only the beginning of a wonderful new world :)

  21. Re:good by DaHat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Say what you want about the policies or politics of SCO, it is always unfortunate when large numbers of people are laid off due to the problems of the company (ie those who made the bad decisions get to keep their cushy jobs).

  22. Lay-offs abroad? by BuddieFox · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The Santa Cruz Sentinel is reporting, SCO is laying off 10 percent of its worldwide workforce."

    I guess they are laying of lawyers in Germany then? :)

  23. They will be missed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like a bad case of hemorrhoids

    Though in a way i was hoping this suit would actually end in court, with a legal result that would put others off attempting the same.

    -SafT

  24. Stupid RBC by mindaktiviti · · Score: 1

    As a Canadian, I feel ashamed that Royal Bank of Canada invested in such an entity.

    "No soup for you!" RBC!

    1. Re:Stupid RBC by math0ne · · Score: 0

      I strongly agree with this, if i had knowledge of this before now i would have definativly switch banks.
      Is there a page that details all company's that have a stake in SCO?

    2. Re:Stupid RBC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Um, if you really ARE invested in RBC, you should be happy that your bank has made you money off its investments.

      If you feel badly about it, you can always take your share of the proceeds and donate it to charity, rather than whining about it on Slashdot.

      (Why don't I get the feeling that's going to happen?)

    3. Re:Stupid RBC by Dav3K · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I also deal heavily with RBC and almost did switch banks. I stayed with them only because they gave me the best service. However I did shuffle my mutual funds to non-sco funds and was clear about my reasons for doing so. At this point I am just relieved that RBC is no longer involved in this mess .

    4. Re:Stupid RBC by hey · · Score: 1

      As a Canadian I don't feel ashamed when one Canadian company (this is a private company -- not government owned) invests in a nasty company. Do you feel bad when one Canadian person does something bad?! You don't bear responsibility for every company and person in the country.

    5. Re:Stupid RBC by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      SCO isn't exactly drug dealing, eating kittens, or holding slave labour in their basement dungeons (well...that we know of) -- they're operating entirely within the confines of the US legal system. If you don't like what SCO is doing, complain about the legal system that lets them get away with it.

      RBC, like many large investment firms, is held hostage by SCO's antics (like most everyone else) because of the negative impact a SCO win would have, so naturally they hedge by holding some of the other side. This is rudimentary investing, and it's just ridiculous when people get moralistic and "ashamed" about it.

    6. Re:Stupid RBC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any mutual fund manager that has SCO stock in their portfolio should be removed. This stock has not made any money in years, its only real income was as the result of a lawsuit in that time. Even a speculative MF should have it in there.

  25. Layoffs are not nice by cwernli · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even if they weren't everybody's darling, they at least didn't manufacture any weapons.

    1. Re:Layoffs are not nice by tannhaus · · Score: 1

      I'm waiting for groklaw to unearth that story tomorrow....

      "SCO key in weapons sales to the Contras. Darl and Reagan both claim to not remember."

    2. Re:Layoffs are not nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Layoffs are not nice

      Exactly, all the army of lawyers are going after somebody else now...

      Even if they weren't everybody's darling, they at least didn't manufacture any weapons.

      You are right again. All their weapons (of mass destruction) - their intelectual property - is missing somewhere...
      But SCO assures they'll find it!!!

    3. Re:Layoffs are not nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually SCO systems were used in some tanks. There were stories going around about patches etc being downloaded in the field in the early 90's.

      The control system for the cabin of the Boeing 777 also used to run on UnixWare. Maybe it still does.

    4. Re:Layoffs are not nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also forgot to mention that many of the fast food chains run their instore networks on groups of SCO machines. Does that count as weapon?

    5. Re:Layoffs are not nice by cwernli · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually SCO systems were used in some tanks. There were stories going around about patches etc being downloaded in the field in the early 90's.

      That's probably this one. Way back in REM-time, with BBS's still going strong.

      The control system for the cabin of the Boeing 777 also used to run on UnixWare.

      Not anymore; but I never really understood what a browser has to do with an operating system.

    6. Re:Layoffs are not nice by phoneyman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?

      First off, what's wrong with manufacturing weapons? The reality of the world today is that weapons are still necessary. In fact it's highly unlikely that weapons will ever be completely unnecessary.

      Second, since when does the act of not manufacturing weapons become an excuse for immoral behaviour? I'm pretty sure if I came home and said "Hey Hon, I banged some hookers on my way home but at least I didn't manufacture any weapons!" I'd still end up homeless.

      What an assinine comment, insightful my ass.

      Pierre

    7. Re:Layoffs are not nice by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 1

      I agree with you there. We will stop needing weapons when they stop making idiots, power hungry mobsters, and bullies. Until then, the rest of the world needs tools to deal with thugs. The problem is that the existence of weapons upsets simplistic people who don't see that without any form of object which can hurt people in the hands of a physically weaker person, there's no way to stop the larger among us from using their own force to dominate others. Weapons are the natural escalation of an arms war that started with um, ARMS. Seriously- without weapons, there is a HUGE difference between the damage the average man can inflict and the amount a woman can inflict. Democracy is not sufficient when there are three men who want to rape a woman and only one woman to vote "no". There has to be some equalizer, some killing implement which can be effectively used by anyone. It's unfortunate, but hey, we live in a pretty hostile world- it's just that most people from the first world countries tend to forget the true nature of nature due to being separated from it for their entire lives.

    8. Re:Layoffs are not nice by chris_sawtell · · Score: 1

      Oh?

      Besides McDonalds and many other retailers, they provide extensive database facilities to the British Army and the Royal Navy. While I agree they don't churn out AK-47s or M-16s etc., they are most definitely active in the 'killing fields'. Tainted? Yes, most definitely; bloodied hands, possibly.

    9. Re:Layoffs are not nice by RoyalCheese · · Score: 1

      The moral issue about arms manufacture is not that arms are made, but that the salesmen do not necessarily care about the humane credentials of the buyer, or where and how their companies products will eventually be used.

      I think the idealistic solution would be to NATIONALISE the arms companies so they only make and sell weapons to our own and allied governments (who share our ethical standards. When they fulfill their production runs they can sit idle, continue to do development work, tender for civilian/civil work...anything but make arms for dubious end customers.

      But Oh!..then the taxpayer will have to pay development costs, and government unaccountability will result in budget over runs etc!! Hello? Isn't that what happens with most of our current defence contracts already?

      And what about the arms industries outside our borders (e.g. those pesky Frenchies, Russians and Chinese?)
      Hmm.. their salesmen will just have less competition for the Saudi Riyals and Indonesian (Ringit?) an Sudanese Whatevers (just as examples). Yes, but we won't have contributed to disproportinal violence against the little guy in those countries, or made the arms that were distributed to the private militias etc.

  26. Ding Dong... by Esion+Modnar · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...the witch is (almost) dead, the evil witch is (almost) dead. Heh.

    --

    They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
    1. Re:Ding Dong... by grub · · Score: 2, Funny


      Did Netcraft confirm it? Poor SCO, truly an American icon.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
  27. The begining of the end... by WordODD · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Uh oh looks like Microsoft is going to need to find a new puppet company to attack Linux through now that SCO's end may be in sight.

    --
    Please do not let scientific accuracy interfere with the intended humourous/interesting/insightful value of this comment
    1. Re:The begining of the end... by leoxx · · Score: 2, Informative

      They already have.

    2. Re:The begining of the end... by rajafarian · · Score: 1

      ... looks like Microsoft is going to need to find a new puppet company to attack Linux...

      SUN?

    3. Re:The begining of the end... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After all, there's such undeniable proof of it and everything.

      Slashdot is one big tinfoil hat these days. Everything opposing Linux is accused of being under Microsoft's thumb.

  28. It's not over yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Remember, they still have a decent chunk of money in the bank. Until that's gone, this isn't over.

    1. Re:It's not over yet... by quelrods · · Score: 1

      no but with their stock at its lowest level in 6months, continuing layoffs, and more people dropping them like the bad company they are...it again signals the beginning of the end which we are all anxiously awaiting.

      --
      :(){ :|:&};:
    2. Re:It's not over yet... by dmaxwell · · Score: 1

      It's only the beginning though. Remember when Be Inc sold their assets to Palm? They retained the right to sue MS and existed as a one or two man operation solely to carry that suit out. The consolation is that such a rump corporation isn't going to be either effective or credible at pumping the FUD. I suppose Didiot and Pretenderle will still hype up how SCO is going to 0wnz3r L1n00ks; oh well.

  29. stock price by bhny · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The strange thing about SCOX stock is the volume is very tiny.
    Today it was 64,035. That's about the equivalent of 2 day-traders flipping the stock back and forth.

    What does that mean? Nobody is interested in buying or selling this thing.

    1. Re:stock price by peeping_Thomist · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Nobody is interested in buying or selling this thing.

      Oh, I'll bet lots of people are interested in selling it, but they can't get their price for it...

      --
      Anything worth doing is worth doing badly -- G.K. Chesterton
    2. Re:stock price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Low volume means quite simply that neither buyers nor sellers are interested at the current price. In SCO's case this makes perfect sense. No-one is going to buy except shorts covering and they are waiting for it to collapse. Similarly it's not an attractive sell to those who bought at higher levels.

      Low volume usually indicates a big move coming as it doesnt take much to push the equilibrium off. In SCO's case I think it's safe to say that move will be downward.

  30. Oblig. Star Wars reference by 3Cats · · Score: 5, Funny

    Minion to Darl:

    ".. We've analysed their attack sir, and there is a danger. Should I have your ship standing by?"

    3C

    1. Re:Oblig. Star Wars reference by space_biker · · Score: 4, Funny

      What!!!! In our moment of Triumph!!!!

    2. Re:Oblig. Star Wars reference by OverlordQ · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      FOR ME TO POOP ON!

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    3. Re:Oblig. Star Wars reference by archen · · Score: 1

      Well that sort of analogy is a bit strange if you ask me. I mean look at the size of a company like SCO. And look at who they decided to sue: IBM. Seriously, IBM is so huge they could almost build a real death star and man it with layers. Although the amount of evil concentrated in something like the death star manned by lawyers is almost to frightening to comprehend in itself...

    4. Re:Oblig. Star Wars reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I think you overestimate their chances, captain!"

    5. Re:Oblig. Star Wars reference by horza · · Score: 1

      Baystar and Bank of Canado do NOT want to pull out of SCO, it is Linux infidels putting that in your head. In fact all the big American banks are trying to buy our stock. Shares in Red Hat and IBM are falling as we speak. Novell employees will be forced to eat their stock for sustenance. Join the winning side before it is too late. Send your CV to jobs@sco.com.

      Phillip.
      SCO Information Minister

  31. I know some of these people ... by JMZorko · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I live in Santa Cruz, and know some of these people who were laid off recently. I don't like what SCO is doing, either ... and I have fond hopes that they fail miserably with regards to their Linux IP litigations. Still, some good friends of mine are now without work, without prescription benefits, and in this jobless recovery, without much hope. I feel very badly for them.

    Regards,

    John, human

    --
    Falling You - beautiful
    1. Re:I know some of these people ... by DAldredge · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Tough Shit. They where working for the devil and they knew it.

    2. Re:I know some of these people ... by silas_moeckel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Even worse who realy wants to hire anybody with the taint of SCO on there resume? I'm not saying they didn't have some good people but lets face it managers do look at where your comming from and if your laid off from SCO that tell me that you were to dumb to leave let me correct that run while sending your resume to every head hunter you have ever known, away from that ship. Moral is start thinking about leaving when your company goes bad not when they lay you off as they tank.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    3. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, did you not read the links? The Linux companies are booming and hiring. Your friends can easily find work.

    4. Re:I know some of these people ... by bshroyer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Jobless recovery my ass

      April employment stats released this morning reveal 625K new nonfarm jobs the last two months.

      And with unemployment currently at 5.6%, that's lower than it's been the last 30 years, excluding the dot-com bubble 1996-2001. (You'd be hard-pressed to find an economist who would indicate that unemployment of 4.2%, as we had in 1999, is good for the economy, much less sustainable.

      If your friend can't find a job, perhaps he needs to switch location, career, or both. It's quite possible there aren't a lot of open positions for Unix gurus in Southern California these days.

      --
      The cure for cancer is coming: Reovirus
    5. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Might want to practice those spelling skills before you put out a resume.

    6. Re:I know some of these people ... by molarmass192 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ironically, your friends in Santa Cruz had absolutely nothing to do with Darl and his foaming-at-the-mouth Linux vendetta yet now they're the ones paying the price. The silver lining is that SCO as a company is finished, so leaving the company was inevitable. Still, I know lots of people out of work and it's still very hard out there, regardless of all the "Jobs Growth" headlines in the papers.

      --

      Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
    7. Re:I know some of these people ... by DevilM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You missed the news... the jobless recovery is over. The latest jobs report showed aggressive growth.

    8. Re:I know some of these people ... by bshroyer · · Score: 1

      Sorry for the rant. I honestly didn't mean it as a personal against your honor.

      I just get sick and tired of people latching onto the tired (and incorrect) catch-phrases that the media applies to anything which fits in the category of "not endorsed by Ted Kennedy."

      There's a world of facts out there. It would be a better country if more of us would take the effort to check up on the accuracy of what the press is feeding us these days.

      Bret

      --
      The cure for cancer is coming: Reovirus
    9. Re:I know some of these people ... by Monkelectric · · Score: 1, Insightful
      Still, some good friends of mine are now without work, without prescription benefits, and in this jobless recovery, without much hope. I feel very badly for them.

      Welcome to the fucking club.

      --

      Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

    10. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      so you're claiming that unemployment is good for an economy? What Soviet Jr. College did you graduate from?

    11. Re:I know some of these people ... by plopez · · Score: 1

      How about this? When you look at the U&-1 through U-6 rates, then picture is not so rosy.

      links:

      http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modl oa d&name=News&file=article&sid=1092
      http://www.nyc9 9.com/weblog/001319.html

      and the U-3 which is what the news mainly reports has been changed several times over the years and so you cannot compare the current 'rate' with past rates. The gov't is manipulating the stats to make itself look better. Orwell would be proud of this rewriting of history.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    12. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What % of those jobs where lowpaying service jobs with no benifits?

    13. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonym0us+Cow+Herd · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Tough Shit. They where working for the devil and they knew it.

      How offensive!



      Please. In the future...


      Do not compare the devil to SCO. Even the Bible says something about not slandering celestial beings (book of James?).

      --
      The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
    14. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The only thing I know about jobs is that who is president doesn't have much to do with whether I have one.

      If you going to dislike Bush fine, but PLEASE find a rational excuse for doing so.

    15. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last reported number was 219,000 IT types remain unemployed beyond UC. Many more have, in fact, moved on and are no longer counted in the poll.

      Information Technology clearly continues to contract after the dot-bomb.

      Now, of course, Wal-Mart is calling. Choose from anything they have open for $8/hr or so. That is your new "non-farm job". It is, also, quite close to the national poverty level - and below it for most of the Northeast US.

      What you miss, competely, is this is called the Unemployment RATE - 5.8% of the work force is currently collecting on their 6 months of insurance. Fall off the end, and you aren't counted.

      The rate could continue at 5.8% for about 17 years - and you'd wake up with NOBODY being employed.

    16. Re:I know some of these people ... by comedian23 · · Score: 1

      Actually the country does always have a certain percentage of unemployment. No politician except for maybe Stalin or Mao would say 100% employment is good. I forget the rate but I think it's in the 4% range. This represents people who are between jobs, or who are laid off and expecting to go back to their job as business picks up(which is very common in some industries).

    17. Re:I know some of these people ... by ChangeOnInstall · · Score: 4, Insightful


      I live in Santa Cruz, and know some of these people who were laid off recently. I don't like what SCO is doing, either ... and I have fond hopes that they fail miserably with regards to their Linux IP litigations. Still, some good friends of mine are now without work, without prescription benefits, and in this jobless recovery, without much hope. I feel very badly for them.

      Regards,

      John, human


      It can be a terrible thing for someone to lose their job, especially given that they probably were in ideal positions before Darl came along. But honestly, these folks shouldn't be at all surprised that they are being laid off. The writing has been on the wall for about nine months now, and for the last six or so it should have been blatantly obvious that anyone who doesn't add value to the litigation should not even count on a short term future with SCO.

      I feel bad for these folks because the management decided to wreck their company, but that happened last year.

      --
      What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
    18. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Idiot.

      Stop being a christian apologist. Be a realist. You should be an athiest like 99% of the population is.

    19. Re:I know some of these people ... by dmaxwell · · Score: 0

      Do not compare the devil to SCO.

      You're right. It is rather insulting to the devil isn't it?

    20. Re:I know some of these people ... by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 1
      Still, some good friends of mine are now without work, without prescription benefits, and in this jobless recovery, without much hope. I feel very badly for them.

      And in other news, many SS officers lost their jobs at the end of World War II. Boo fuckin-hoo.

    21. Re:I know some of these people ... by dmaxwell · · Score: 1

      I heard some analyst on NPR today talking about "unprecendented" growth in the manufacturing sector. I guess he hasn't heard that the Dept. of Labor is counting fast food jobs as "manufacturing" jobs. If a minimum wage job magically counts as a relatively well paying manufacturing job, I have to wonder what other games are being played with those numbers.

    22. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The latest jobs report showed aggressive growth.

      And will be revised down next month. I've never seen job report revised down so much. The white house isn't suppose to be able to influence these reports, but I can't understand why else they are wrong so often.

    23. Re:I know some of these people ... by FirstOne · · Score: 2, Interesting
      "Jobless recovery my ass...April employment stats released this morning reveal 625K new nonfarm jobs the last two months."

      All the claimed job growth is smoke and mirrors.. the globalists are manipulating the survey results.
      It fairly easy to make up fake claims of hiring, especially since they are the one's filling out the DOL questionnaires!!

      Now for a dose of the truth !
      Collected SS receipts.. (You know that little old flat tax on Salaries and wages, no deductibles or exemptions allowed)
      Has not been keeping up with inflation.. (And that's assuming zero job growth in the intervening year !!!)

      That truth link also covers half of April's supposed growth,
      since the DOL survey uses 2nd week of each month as the benchmark.
      (a double whammy..)

      In summary.. you've been conned!!
      Just more job losses and cut backs, buried under a pile of bogus statistics !

    24. Re:I know some of these people ... by cnkeller · · Score: 1
      If your friend can't find a job, perhaps he needs to switch location, career, or both. It's quite possible there aren't a lot of open positions for Unix gurus in Southern California these days.

      Just for clarification, we consider Santa Cruz to be in Northern California, being about 60 miles or so south of San Francisco and about 15 miles west of Silicon Valley.

      --

      there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots

    25. Re:I know some of these people ... by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      I was using def 2 see below, that is why I wrote devil and not Devil.

      1. The Evil One; Satan, represented as the tempter and spiritual of mankind.
      Jesus being forty days tempted of the devil.
      Luke iv 2

      That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Rev. xii 9

      2. An evil spirit; a demon.
      A dumb man possessed with a devil.

    26. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So?

    27. Re:I know some of these people ... by twigles · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I went through a brutal layoff in 2001 and it sucks. There are emails flying all over with personal contact info and people spend all day looking at the Monster boards and finding nothing. Then if McBride is as sleazy as our CEO was he'll call a company meeting a week or two before the whole company implodes and tell everyone that the rumors are all wrong and everything is fine, thus giving the knife a little twist.

      Anyone with an MBA should be dealt with suspiciously - they don't think like us. Let them prove themselves but don't go rushing in believing them right away, and no matter what they tell you they are *not* your friend.

      I feel for these people also because Santa Cruz doesn't look like it is an enviable place to live right now if you're looking for a tech job. Now with all these Unix geeks hitting the street at once I'll know to avoid it for a couple years more.

    28. Re:I know some of these people ... by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      Those aren't facts, those are numbers. Facts can only be issued by the White House.

      Anyone who says different is a traitor!

      (Some people do thing this way...)

    29. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right. It is rather insulting to the devil isn't it?

      Good work, Captain Obvious! You managed to see the whole point of his post! What would we do without you?

    30. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And in other news, many SS officers lost their jobs at the end of World War II. Boo fuckin-hoo.

      Congratulations - you have proven Godwin's law once again. And, in accordance with long-standing Internet tradition, you have also lost the argument.

    31. Re:I know some of these people ... by Kafka_Canada · · Score: 1

      Even worse who realy wants to hire anybody with the taint of SCO on there resume?

      Well, it depends on which definition of taint you mean...

      (t'ain't the hee, and t'ain't the haw)

      --

      Website in sig temporarily: http://geek.is-a-geek.org/

      --
      Fuck it
    32. Re:I know some of these people ... by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 1
      :) I didn't think too many people know about that law. I can't stop laughing :)

      Anyway, I seriously do think that the employees at SCO were part of the problem, so boo-hoo. I feel bad for kids that need feeding, couples that are strained, houses that need fixing, etc, but it's a big planet and shit happens and I would rather see SCO sink at the cost of a few people than have their jobs kept but SCO prosper.

      So, again, and with no mention of Mr. H, boo-fuckin-hoo.

    33. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention that without a pool of unemployed workers to pick from, companies can't fill open positions, which is a Bad Thing. Just go back in time a few years for a good example of why that is.

    34. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seeing as how you're semiliterate, I doubt anyone gives a shit about your theoretical hiring practices. Go to school, get a job, and work your way up to management, and then maybe you'll be in a better position to make the idiotic comment you just made.

    35. Re:I know some of these people ... by nlindstrom · · Score: 1

      And furthermore, NorCal is different than SoCal. For those of you not living in NorCal, please don't associate us, the enlightened denizens of NorCal, with the uncircumcised savages that inhabit SoCal. :^)

    36. Re:I know some of these people ... by neurojab · · Score: 1

      >Moral is start thinking about leaving when your company goes bad not when they lay you off as they tank.

      Try looking for a UNIX/Linux-related job in Santa Cruz (or even the Bay Area). It's damn hard. Hardly anyone has done any hiring around here since 2001. Any open position is met with hundreds of applicants. Head hunters? Yeah right. Head hunters are also in the dole queue, so to speak.

      It's smart to stay in your current job until you can find a new one under those conditions. It's likely those folks have been looking for a new job since this fiaSCO began, but were unable to find one.

    37. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All of those UNIX/Linux people should get with the times, get a job at McDs and contribute to open source programs in their spare time "for the fun of it". The dawn of the GNU World.

    38. Re:I know some of these people ... by Phragmen-Lindelof · · Score: 1

      Sorry, for those born and raised in Humboldt County (CA), Santa Cruz is pretty far south. We are not even sure we include SF in northern California. (If they quit taking water from the Eel river and putting it in the Russian river, maybe we will count the "parking lot that is the Bay Area" as northern CA.)
      From this site "Another negative impact on the Eel has been the building of dams. In 1908 the Cape Horn Dam/Van Arsdale Reservoir and diversion tunnel were built in Potter Valley, near the headwaters of the main stem of the Eel River. The Eel River water diverted through the tunnel creates the East Fork of the Russian River and Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, California. Eel River water has been diverted to the vineyards of Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties ever since. In 1922 Scott Dam was built 12 miles upstream from Van Arsdale. Scott Dam impounds Lake Pillsbury and prevents salmon from getting to the tributaries above it. These dams and the diversion tunnel reduce the amount of water in the river system, so that fewer native plant and animal species can survive. Spawning beds dry up and when the winter rains arrive the river cannot absorb the water easily and flooding occurs."

    39. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but you fucked that up when you said "the" instead of "a".

    40. Re:I know some of these people ... by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      Congratulations - you have proven Godwin's law once again. And, in accordance with long-standing Internet tradition, you have also lost the argument.

      Godwin's Law is only used by people that don't have a counterargument.

    41. Re:I know some of these people ... by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      I also fscked up by not reading his message correctly.

    42. Re:I know some of these people ... by Samrobb · · Score: 1
      Collected SS receipts.. (You know that little old flat tax on Salaries and wages, no deductibles or exemptions allowed) Has not been keeping up with inflation.. (And that's assuming zero job growth in the intervening year !!!)

      Employers are required to pay social security taxes quarterly. Additionaly, if I'm understanding some of the other references on SS tax payments, employers are only required to make estimated payments quarterly, with any excess paid at the end of the tax year.

      I'm not an expert on tax law, and tax documentation makes my eyes water, so I may be misunderstanding. But it appears that it would take at least 3 months for the SS payments for new hires to show up as SS receipts. If anyone has more accurate information on how companies actually pay SS and other payroll taxes, I'd be interested to hear how it actually works.

      --
      "Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9
    43. Re:I know some of these people ... by FirstOne · · Score: 1
      "Collected SS receipts.. (You know that little old flat tax on Salaries and wages, no deductibles or exemptions allowed) Has not been keeping up with inflation.. (And that's assuming zero job growth in the intervening year !!!)"

      "Employers are required to pay social security taxes quarterly."

      Wrong you are..

      1st... Your link claims..quarterly reporting on 941 forms.. .
      "Employers must report income and employment taxes withheld from their employees on an Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return (Form 941)"

      2nd.. Employers must make deposits on either a monthly and a twice a week schedule. see pages17 thru 22..

      Deposit penalties.. calender days and personal liability is attached to all payments.
      2% .. 1 to 5 days late.
      5%... 6 to 15 days late.
      10%.. 16 or more days late.
      15%.. 10 days after 1st IRS notice.
      (and it goes up from there)..

      3rd.. The SS receipts comparison was for the first six months(that is two quarters in laymens terms) for each Federal fiscal year.


      "I'm not an expert on tax law, and tax documentation makes my eyes water, so I may be misunderstanding. "

      Agreed, you are obviously not an expert, and you do not understand tax law/payment requirements.

    44. Re:I know some of these people ... by thedarb · · Score: 1

      They knowingly stayed with a company commiting widely publicised fraud. They are complicit. That being the case, they have no ethics another employer can stake a reputation on, so why hire them? I wouldn't even trust them to be janiters, they'd steal things when the lights are out.

      May they never work again.

      As for their families, I agree that the families shouldn't suffer. I propose setting up a fund for the families, but to be eligable, the spouse must divorce the former or current SCO employee. We could help them get the house, the kids, and the car. Once they've demonstrated the former SCO employee has completely lost his entire family, let the aid money flow to that family.

      I'd like to know if companies are required to list anywhere public the names of the people they've laid off. It could be a good start to a hiring blacklist. I'd also like to add to all companies some new hiring practices. Make the applicant sign a legal document stating they've never worked for, invested in, or in any way outside of the GPL assisted SCO after learning of the companies fraudulent behavior. That way if you find out later that they did work for SCO, you could basicly hang them out to dry.

      The only ones who deserve refuge would be the ones who left, say, in the first 90 days or so. That's plenty of time to read up and find your company is committing fraud and to resign over it to preserve ones principles. That'd be a person I would hire.

      *TheDarb

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
    45. Re:I know some of these people ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you, sir, are an illiterate asshole. LLearn how to make a coherent argument instead of citing somoewhat related facts.

    46. Re:I know some of these people ... by Samrobb · · Score: 1
      Agreed, you are obviously not an expert, and you do not understand tax law/payment requirements

      I never claimed to be. The rancor in your reply is uncalled for. I probably shouldn't be surprised that there are two apparently contradictory guidelines for SS tax payments, in any case. That's government for you.

      While I thank you for pointing me towards the applicable regulations and clearing up my misunderstanding, I'm curious as to what your credentials are, since you seem to imply that you are an expert in US tax law. At the moment, you appear to be npothing more than a somewhat knowedgeable individual using (and possibly misusing) someone else's statistics.

      --
      "Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9
  32. With such wonderous business sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is no wonder my Royal Bank investments barely make money. Makes me wonder if they have anyone on staff with even half a clue. Any geeky kid in a small town high school could have picked SCO as a loser.

  33. SCO and IP property rights (DMCA?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What people need to realize is that while the Royal Bank of Canada is the indirect cause of the layoffs, the direct cause is still SCO due to their misuse of the Anser Albifrons clause of the DMCA which allows for this behaviour. The previous versions of Linux (2.4 and 2.2), while allowing for activities that are partial to the clause are not stable enough for the Royal Bank to continue to fund the stock trades of the SCO while they are Cashing out as per the title of this slashdot article.

  34. Heh.. Play with fire.. Get burned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    "The Series A-1 stock was purchased at a price of $1,000 per share, and will be converted to common stock based on a conversion price of $13.50 per share." Now.. I'm a stock market clod.. SCOX is currently trading at 6.. It's already lost 58ish percent. At least BayStar knows that the loss is covered.

    1. Re:Heh.. Play with fire.. Get burned by bstone · · Score: 1

      At least BayStar knows that the loss is covered.

      Not if they try to sell the stuff. Trying to sell even a fraction of their 740,740 shares will drive the price into the ground. Of course, if they keep it, the price will go into the ground anyway. I would estimate that they're out about 75% of their money on the stock if they try to sell it, or all of their money if they hang onto it for a while.

      Of course, after that loss, there will be some former SCO lawyers available cheap. Maybe Baystar and RBC can hire them to sue Darl for their losses.

  35. SCO Imitates Art by yorgasor · · Score: 5, Funny
    I came across this old Calvin and Hobbes strip and wondered if this is how SCO's planning meeting went

    --
    Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
    1. Re:SCO Imitates Art by daeley · · Score: 4, Funny

      Even their stupid business plans have prior art.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  36. Great news? How about some solidarity?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Before you rejoice, think about your fellow geeks, completely innocent when it comes to SCO's executive rampage, who are losing their jobs.

  37. I can't help feeling... by Phidoux · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... that MS is going to end up buying SCO. Then MS will probably GPL Unix, drop all the IP suits and end up trying to look like the good guys.

    1. Re:I can't help feeling... by FattMattP · · Score: 1

      Yeah but that fantasy is built upon the assumption that SCO owns Unix. Keep dreaming.

      --
      Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
    2. Re:I can't help feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's amazing you've made it this far in life with such an uncanny sense of being dead wrong.

    3. Re:I can't help feeling... by Anonym0us+Cow+Herd · · Score: 1

      Whoever buys SCO still has all of the lawsuits, and IBM's counterclaims to deal with.

      --
      The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
    4. Re:I can't help feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But that would go against their next plan, which is to change their name to Digital Research and start suing MS Windows users for the DOS / CP/M portions in Windows. The argument is basically no different.

    5. Re:I can't help feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhhh, SCO does own Unix.

    6. Re:I can't help feeling... by BigFire · · Score: 1

      MS cannot buy SCO. Not if they don't want any additional attention on their violation of consent decree.

    7. Re:I can't help feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MSFT is going to release Linux (MSFT IP after the acquisition of SCO) under the SSI.

    8. Re:I can't help feeling... by Alan+Hicks · · Score: 1
      Yeah but that fantasy is built upon the assumption that SCO owns Unix.


      While SCO may very well not own unix, they do own the distribution rights to System V unix as I understand it. Whoever buys SCO would seem to hold those distribution rights. Depending on the wording of their contract with Novell, it is possible that whoever has distribution rights could distribute it under the GPL. I don't think that's likely though. More likely the contract says they cannot release the source code.

      Given that many pieces of System V unix have in the past been published in books or in other places under a BSDish license, I would think it more likely to be released under just that license.
      --
      Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
  38. Bert Young by Jonboy+X · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just so ya know, Bert Young has a experience in helping companies that are basically dead in the water keep up the illusion of growth right up to the moment of reckoning. The GL has a story on it here.

    --

    "In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
    1. Re:Bert Young by snakecoder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I did a little googling on Bert Young and two words I don't see in any of his ventures are "profitable business". Hiring that guy seems to be synonymous with writing a suicide note.

      I will miss the entertainment though, sniff sniff.

      --
      -Nuke the moon
    2. Re:Bert Young by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Informative

      That old Groklaw stuff is nothing, trust me. Check out Mr. Young's track record before marchFirst for even more revelations in this post at the Yahoo Finance board. Connections to MLM schemes, the mob, Adnan Kashoggi of Iran-Contra fame... Oh Boy!

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    3. Re:Bert Young by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, yeah! With credentials like those, how could SCO refuse to hire him?

    4. Re:Bert Young by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      keep up the illusion of growth right up to the moment of reckoning.

      Like, for example, when MicroSoft's Longhorn is ready.

  39. To get more customers by Salo2112 · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Stop suing them.
    2. Then start selling an actual product.
    3. Profit.

    I can't wait to see how Laura Didio spins this one as a plus for SCO.

  40. Stupid RBC by P.+Norbert+Ebersol · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As a Canadian, AND someone with actual money in RBC investments, I'm totally disgusted. It's as bad in my eyes as having investments in Enron or any other such corrupt company propped up by shady deals and questionable legalities.

    Of course, theres no point in whining about it now, as they've made their money and are getting out of it probably with a bit of profit at the expense of people even stupider.

    Still, it makes me question the bank I've used exclusively over the past 20 years. I'm forced to take a closer look at what they're doing with my money.

  41. Investment Strategy by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I prefer to own stock in companies that:
    • Have a product
    • that is involved in sales
    • to customers
    • generating revenue
    SCO seems to have none of these things.
    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    1. Re:Investment Strategy by Mateito · · Score: 1

      I thought you were a Sun shareholder until I read the last point:

      Disclaimer: I am :(

    2. Re:Investment Strategy by wafflemonger · · Score: 1
      A couple of other things

      Won't sue you when you leave to a competing product

      Don't claim that your work really theirs

  42. Good, but sad by Rhesus+Piece · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As glad that I am that a company with questionable business practices is getting what is coming to them, it also marks a pile of Linuxey IT workers who are out of a job. I don't care how evil we may think SCO is, there are folks in there just trying to do a good job and support their families. So, before we say, "Hurray! The Enemy is losing!" we should keep in mind that some of our own are amongst their ranks. Err.. were. Also, imagine applying for a job at a linuxey firm.. "Says here you worked for SCO.. they tried to ruin linux, right" "Oh.. it says SCO? That must be a typo." "There is a whole paragraph, in detail.." "It's ALL A TYPO!"

    1. Re:Good, but sad by Rhesus+Piece · · Score: 0

      Also, I need to learn how to format slashdot comments so they keep the newlines I set.
      Sorry to anyone trying to read that big mush of text in the parent.

    2. Re:Good, but sad by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      I doubt SCO had more IT workers than they were contractually obligated to have for tech support. (Assuming there are still any large SCO installations out there.) Anyone there who hasn't been shopping their resume for months must have been scavenging the crack left-overs from the boardroom.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    3. Re:Good, but sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I had worked at SCO, My resume would have been dusted off and distributed in May of '03.

    4. Re:Good, but sad by NaugaHunter · · Score: 1

      At this point, I would hope that either the competent ones have already moved on or have already been exploring their options and saving up for this scenario. I'd be tempted to through out the Clerks 'they knew they were working for the Empire' argument, but with the economy the way it is between a general recession and outsourcing, there aren't too many tech jobs to go for as it is, at least not for those unwilling to uproot. They are people too - hoping for the best, unwilling to upset their lives on what may happen, probably with family that would also be affected if they act prematurely.

      That being said, I don't think it likely that they will run into a blacklist situation. While small-minded individuals may not be able to see it, most companies would recognize that the lower echelon rarely has anything to do with a companies direction as a whole.

      --
      R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
  43. Reminds me of Apocalypse now... by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Utah. Shit. I'm still in Utah.

  44. 10% is nothing... by taped2thedesk · · Score: 4, Informative
    ...compared to the past year:

    From SCO.com:
    Q. How many people does The SCO Group employ? A. As of April 30, 2003, 339 employees.

    From the article:
    Stowell said the cuts totaled less than 10 percent of the company's total worldwide work force of 275. There were cuts, however, earlier in the quarter as well. In March the company reported 305 employees, including 73 in Santa Cruz.

    339 - 275 = 64 positions gone from April 2003 to May 2004, not including these layoffs. Jeez.

    1. Re:10% is nothing... by Anonym0us+Cow+Herd · · Score: 1

      There were 330 employees up until June, and I believe even up until October.

      See this slashdot post I made earlier.

      --
      The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
    2. Re:10% is nothing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      an average employee costs the company about 200k (including salary + benefits).

      so 64 people is 13 million saved. what is SCO's burn?

      with 2 months severance at an average of 50k per year we have an additional cost of 530k.

  45. Martyrdom by AndyCap · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do fear that the next spin on this will be martyrdom, Poor little SCO couldn't get justice before it was forced to its knees by the brutal linux movement sponsored by the behemoth IBM, or something to that effect.
    --

    1. Re:Martyrdom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You must have been reading the writings of Enderle (the not-so-savvy tech analyst).

      He's been saying pretty much that for a while now. Called Linux users terrorists because he got hatemail for being a moron (well, he had more "justification" than that, but what I just said is pretty much what it boiled down to in the end...) I think they're his favorite scapegoats because they often point out how dumb he is, and that threatens his livelihood of writing BS articles...

      In case you're wondering, why yes, I did spend quite a while researching him to see what his connections to SCO were after he started writing some of this nonsense. My conclusion was that he's not being paid by anyone, he's just a contrarian type who liked generating some controversy, because people calling him stupid reinforces for him the idea that he's smarter than them all, having "seen through" whatever "popular misconception" he's writing about today.

      The best strategy for refuting him is to stick to points of provable, technical error (e.g. those points which do not depend on oppinion at all, however well-founded that oppinion might be) and politely call him on them. Preferably every single time he makes those mistakes (and trust me, there are plenty...). In doing so, CC whoever he's writing for (since he does guest columns and such, mostly), and chide him for not doing better fact-checking.

      In other words, avoid any sort of ad hominem, and stick to the facts. Enough of that might get publications to reconsider his role as an "analyst" ... at least those publications who wish to be accurate (Forbes, etc. need not apply).

    2. Re:Martyrdom by AndyCap · · Score: 1

      I've read some of Enderle's writings, but I don't see how this relates to my post. I see the martyr option as a possible way for SCO to "save face" to the extent possible, and also pouring the maximum amount of poison into the Linux well by giving the impression that they had a case and didn't get to see it through before going bankrupt.
      --

    3. Re:Martyrdom by Limecron · · Score: 1

      Hmm...

      The reason that won't happen:

      To be a marytr, you need to have people on your side in the first place.

      No one really cares who they are now; Even fewer will care once they're gone.

    4. Re:Martyrdom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Darl McBride & Enderle are on rather chummy terms, as far as I can tell.

      In other words, SCO has a convenient media outlet waiting for them to cry exactly that when the judges finally slam the door shut on their sham of a case.

  46. Burn SCO Group BURN!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    burn, burn (2x)
    burn, burn, burn...

    open up
    now open up

    you lied, you faked
    you cheated, you changed the stakes
    magnet Toss that pie in the sky
    unrehearsed, let the bubbles burst
    all in all, a three-ring circus
    of unity with parody
    tragedy or comedy
    problably publicity

    open up, make room for me
    now open up, make room for me

    lose myself inside your acchemes
    go for the money, honey
    not the video screen
    be a lying CEO, blah blah blah
    go the whole hog be bigger than God

    burn SCO Group burn, taking down LindonTown
    burn SCO Group burn, down to the ground
    burn SCO Group burn, burn Darl McBride burn
    take down LindonTown, burn down to the ground

    down, into the ground

    burn, burn, burn
    burn.....

  47. Workforce? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    They had a workforce? What did they make?

  48. Time to head for the liquor store... by Eggplant62 · · Score: 2

    The party starts now. Anyone who knows where I live, is welcome over here for a drink.

    1. Re:Time to head for the liquor store... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, coming over!

      * man, not only does writing spyware get me money, it gets me free drinks! *

  49. Hallelujah! by d4rkmoon · · Score: 1

    Sheesh... SCO finally laying off? They need to get rid of that senior management that thought of this stupid scheme to chase after Linux. Of all people, they should have took a hint from DEC and the rest of the big computer companies of the 80s. If your product is slowing in it's life-cycle, perhaps it's time to look at adopting a new product? (like Linux??? ) haha. Feel sorry for the poor souls that work for them and are getting laid off though, especially in this economy. You worked for SCO? Welcome to Burgers R US!

    --
    -- Friends don't let friends buy Nokia.
    1. Re:Hallelujah! by KnightStalker · · Score: 2, Funny

      They need to get rid of that senior management that thought of this stupid scheme

      Unfortunately, they can't lay Ballmer off...

      --
      * And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
  50. SCO has employees? by FooGoo · · Score: 1

    Is this a layoff or are they replacing them with more lawyers?

    --
    People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
    1. Re:SCO has employees? by dvNull · · Score: 1

      AFAIK their software engineering department has now been converted into Litigation Engineering department.

      So yes, they still have engineers .. just not the usual sort.

      - pram

  51. Re:Wise Canadian company? by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

    Not that smart or they wouldn't have invested in the first place. Sure, buying SCOX at the start of this freak-show then selling it at the peak could have made a lot of money, but as I recall, RBC got into this fairly late.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  52. Well... by QuasiCoLtd · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Zdnet those being laid off are mostly in the engineering, marketing, and sales depatments. This is very telling for a so-called "tech" company to lay-off those responsible for creating and selling your core product. Of course we all know that SCO is a litigation company and has no need for engineers to improve a product, no marketers to hype the non-existant product, and no salesmen to.... well you get the idea.

    1. Re:Well... by Dalcius · · Score: 1

      "Mmmm, yeah... I'm going to need you to come in on Sunday, too. We lost some people this week and sorta need to play a little catch-up."

      I can bet that the few tech-monkies left around there are having a hard time keeping up with everything. I feel sorry for any of them who have been looking for another job.

      --
      ~Dalcius
      Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
  53. This really shows you something about SCO... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    In Santa Cruz, for example, they sliced their tech staff by like 80% or something.

    And they said that these layoffs were "to help us focus on our core business" ...

  54. Lawyers by MvdB · · Score: 1

    I bet you they won't lay off any lawyers...

  55. Can't wait till we get to delete that icon form /. by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1

    I hope this will not take much longer. Sure, people might be selling stock, but who's buying? You'd have to be crazy. Maybe Linux and the GPL will be stronger for weathering this. Whatever. I'm just so sick of this case.

  56. 10% by steveha · · Score: 1

    That 10% was probably just their remaining software developers and their tech support staff. The new SCO only needs lawyers and a few executives.

    I expect their stock price will go up when the stock market hears about the newly efficient SCO!

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  57. Re:good by cbovasso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I completely agree. It is great to hear that SCO is losing their court battles but it is tough to hear people getting laid off. Now all those people have SCO as their last place of employment, that has gotta hurt.

    --
    I ask for a car and I get a computer. How's about that for being born under a bad .sig?
  58. Gotta Love Layoff Logic by PetoskeyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Managerial Aptitude Test

    Q. Your the captain of a ship commanding 100 sailors. Your carrying valuable cargo you need to sell for the owner of the ship. It appears there is a hole in your ship and water is coming in fast. What's do you do?

    A. Find out what's wrong and fix it
    B. Tell the sailors to start bailing water and sing something happy while they do it
    C. Start looking around for at the other ships pilot since this once hasn't got long
    D. Move the Cargo to your personal dingy and set sail
    E. Tell everyone "This is not happening, everything is normal, the ship cannot be sinking, we take precautions, you know" and remain calm. (Erik the Viking)
    F. Start throwing sailors into the sea until to lighten the load?

    1. Re:Gotta Love Layoff Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your going to get signed up for a grammar class.

    2. Re:Gotta Love Layoff Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I somehow think that Darl's answer would be C-F ...

    3. Re:Gotta Love Layoff Logic by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 1

      Man, oh man... Your grammar sucks, but I have to say, this is one of the funniest posts I have ever seen on Slashdot!!!

    4. Re:Gotta Love Layoff Logic by PetoskeyGuy · · Score: 1

      Damn, feel free to fix it. I'm up way too late w/ 2bd new born

  59. Schadenfreude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How beautiful feeling that is.

  60. Re:Netcraft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look again. He even got another troll in there.

  61. More layoffs needed by raider_red · · Score: 1

    They need to let go of two more people: Darl McBride and David Boies.

    --
    It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
    1. Re:More layoffs needed by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      They need to let go of two more people: Darl McBride and David Boies.

      Thats not really enough. People need to go to jail over this and any money made from this whole con needs to be taken out of the hands of the con men.

      Otherwise what message does it send?

  62. The Scene is black and white by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Darl is holding Bert hostage in his office rambling on about the fluoride in the water....

  63. A bad thing? by tlambert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just to add another point of view... this may be a bad thing.

    [usual disclaimers here; I'm a layperson who has to deal with issues related to things like this occasionally]

    The difference between a real company and an intellectual property holding company is that a real company has some skin in the game when it comes to treating patents as trading cards. An IP holding company doesn't.

    As a simple example, consider two companies, "A" and "B", with a patent portfolio of 100 patents each, and real products that they are trying to sell.

    When company A says to company B "you're infringing patent A17", B can use its portfolio defensively, and come back with "yes, but you're infringing patent B34; let's trade licenses".

    If company A is an IP holding company, there's nothing company B can do but pay whatever extortionate price: Company A has no product, and is therefore not infringing any of B's IP. B is pretty much hanging in the wind.

    The only place this isn't true is where B has some IP that A acknowledges is the basis of derivative IP held by A, _and_ A values the ability to continue sublicensing it without B raising sublicense fees for the original work in response to the extortion suit.

    IF SCO is, effectively shedding their vulnerable assets, and IF they really have IP assets, this could be an entrenchment where it could end up being very hard to dig them out for a very long time.

    The only real recourse to this sort of business model is for company B to attack companies that are infringing B's portfolio, and which are owned by the same people who own company A - effectively countering extortion with blackmail.

    Yeah, I'm one of those people who think we need intellectual property law reform.

    -- Terry

    1. Re:A bad thing? by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 3, Funny

      You're also one of those people who wrote the assembly instructions for my bunk bed, and my 1040 form.

      If the amount on line C is non-zero and greater than the amount on line B subtract the amount on line A from line D and write on line E.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    2. Re:A bad thing? by crusher-1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "If company A is an IP holding company, there's nothing company B can do but pay whatever extortionate price: Company A has no product, and is therefore not infringing any of B's IP. B is pretty much hanging in the wind."

      And this might explain why BayStar wants Darl out and for it to essentially (if not actually) drop it's Unix products and "concentrate" on the supposed IP holdings and litigation.

      One of the cheif gripes of the Linux community (other than the initial claims that SCO owns Linux) is that both SCO Linux and Unix products used Open Source software, Apache for instance (as well as a host of other things). So if SCO has no product then your contention may be on spot, as far as not being in a position to fend off counter claims regarding what's in SCO Linux/Unix. If you don't have a product and just have a lot of IP patents then you may be correct.

      However, BayStar may have ulterior motives behind their request for a refund - such as we've just mentioned. But it may be in a position to milk SCO for all it's worth and then bail out. The Bank of Canada is essentially clearing a path to bail out as well IMHO. Bottom line, considering the recent layoffs as well, is that SCO is most likely scrounging for cash. What like lawyers are cheap? They aren't getting any revenue from the license/extortion scheme, they aren't selling a product, they have been black listed by almost (if not all) developers (save those that may still work there - do they still employ any devs?)and essentially have not other revenue channels.

      Let's face it. SCO could potentially drag this out for years. But they need money and aren't making any at the moment. They did get a reprieve via Baystar/PIPE/BOC but that appears to be teneous at best. I think that in 6 months SCO well start to exhibit Cheyne-Stokes breathing - aka the death rattle. The stock was down to around $6/share yesterday and dropping (check that, I just checked again and it's at $5.99/share and falling). Any takers on how long before SCO stock is hovering around the price it was before they started they fiasco? I thought not.

      This should be a wake up call for F/OSS. Watch the code base and keep it clean (though most are already painfully aware of this). The big question is what the hell do we do about the USPTO. They are out of touch and really not geared for handling the wave of technology advancements to date and unable to keep up with the breakneck speed of development and changes. I mean for crying out loud they gave M$ a patent on an Apple - not as in MAC but as in fruit to eat. They claim it was a mistake but it begs the question - what else "don't" they get? And I wonder if SCO and friends are banking on the Judges and Juries in the same manner - hoping they don't "get it" in order to "educate" them the SCO way.

      But of course they appear to be doing with the IP litigation what they did with their software business - that is to run it into the ground with a flaming wake of burned bridges behind them.

  64. This was inevitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SCO has attacked much bigger fish, IBM in particular, and made enemies of the entire open source community. Although they clearly don't like it, we are the lifeblood of the Unix world now. Proprietary Unix is not dead, but who runs a Solaris box without Perl on it these days? SCO bet the farm on a lawsuit that was a longshot from the very beginning. Investors and employees can be excused for not knowing that a year ago. But more information just keeps coming out. It isn't a secret that they are going to lose. Without a big chunk of cash from a successful suit, they don't have much of a future. They've gutted the company of anyone who could build them new products. They've alienated everyone they might hire to replace those people. I wonder what string of events these two announcements will trigger. I have some guesses. The next couple of weeks will be interesting to watch.

  65. What were their jobs? by manitoulinnerd · · Score: 1

    The question is.... Was that 10% their law department :D

    --
    Burn Bright or Fade Away
  66. Final request by gearmonger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will the last lawyer out of the building please turn off the lights?

  67. Re:good by jvagner · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'll say this: If their workers had any convictions, SCO wouldn't have to lay anyone off because they would have been gone first.

    Really, who the hell is still there? Maybe only those who've been looking for the last 6 mos and couldn't get a job anywhere else...?

    Anyone with hardline skills should have found work a while ago and walked.

  68. Re:Thank Churchil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is not the end.
    This is not even the begining of the end.
    But it is the end of the beginning.

  69. Yeah, right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All the Linux community has been saying from the beginning is "Put up or shut up."

  70. All I can say is... by Penguinshit · · Score: 2, Informative


    ...ouch...

  71. Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 5, Informative

    Good Lord. RBC is not divesting itself of SCO stock. They are converting preferred to common. Whole different thing.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    1. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by French+Mailman · · Score: 1

      From the article :

      "Royal Bank of Canada has elected to convert 10,000 shares of SCO's Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock it currently holds into a total of 740,740 shares of SCO's common stock."
      (...)
      "Additionally, Royal Bank of Canada informed SCO that it has sold 20,000 shares of Series A-1 stock to BayStar Capital II, L.P., which currently also holds shares of Series A-1 stock."

      Now if I read this correctly, it means that they chose to convert 10,000 "preferred" stock into common stock, and get rid of the rest (20,000 "preferred" stock).

    2. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1

      Still not the same as screaming "Royal Bank of Canada sells ALL it's SCO stock! Sputter, sputter, blather, blather (secret masturbation taking place)"

      --
      "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    3. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 1

      The implication is that they're converting their stock to something liquid they can sell on the open market.

      Regardless of their motivation, it is a strong "sell" signal.

      Bryan

    4. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1
      The implication is that they're converting their stock to something liquid they can sell on the open market.

      True. At a loss if they sell NOW. Closed at 5.99...

      --
      "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    5. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The title was a little unclear, but it's not WRONG. The summary is exactly correct. You are not correct, because you failed to mention the BayStar transfer.

    6. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by MyHair · · Score: 5, Informative

      They are converting 1/3 of their preferred stock at an enormous loss (13.50 vs. curent price 5.94) and selling 2/3.

      The prevailing presumption is that they sold the 2/3 at a loss and will strategically dump the common stock. Keeping the common stock after a move like this wouldn't seem to make sense, but there is probably more going on than any of us know.

      So they divested 2/3 of their stock for unknown terms, lost some benefits of the PIPE deal and are holding 1/3 of their original investment at >50% loss over 7 months. They presumably had the option to force redemption like Baystar, and being the majority investor would get their slice of the pie first. Instead they wait to weeks and pull this. Sounds like they're cutting their losses and splitting to me.

      But admittedly that's not certain yet.

      My best guess is that RBC prefered cutting losses and dropping SCOX rather than fighting about redemption, while Baystar has committed to redemption or bullying, and doubling their stock holdings for presumably a nice discount increases their leverage against SCO management and increases their redemption penalty should they win.

      RBC folded, Baystar raised, and SCO is "all in".

    7. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Still not the same as screaming "Royal Bank of Canada sells ALL it's SCO stock! Sputter, sputter, blather, blather (secret masturbation taking place)"

      Take a look at the story again. You are WRONG about the title. It doesn't say "sells ALL". And that sputter, sputter stuff is the exact details which you have yet to dispute.

    8. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1
      Royal Bank of Canada Cashes Out of SCO

      "Cashes Out" is a synonym of "Sells All". Us your head if you have one.

      --
      "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    9. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Performer+Guy · · Score: 1

      They could end up owning them outright if they press their redemption of preferred options in court. They're now owed more cash than SCO has left in the piggy bank.

    10. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      My best guess is that RBC prefered cutting losses and dropping SCOX rather than fighting about redemption, while Baystar has committed to redemption or bullying, and doubling their stock holdings for presumably a nice discount increases their leverage against SCO management and increases their redemption penalty should they win.

      It's considerably more likely that Microsoft is the surreptitious investor behind the PIPE deal and that this manuever is simply a way to leave some of the cash in SCO's hands while maintaining denyability.

      What other plausible explanation is there for RBC's willingness to convert for 13 cents on the dollar when they could have forced redemption and got back much more?

      Minor factoid: both Baystar and RBC pulled the plug on a Friday...

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    11. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by rtv · · Score: 1

      Naturally, Slashdot poster, otherwise well-informed, gets the bloody punctuation wrong.

    12. Re:Naturally, Slashdot get's it WRONG. by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, SCO's got a 7-2 offsuit and IBM's got A-K suited.

      Mal-2

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  72. Hindsight? by NetNinja · · Score: 1

    Are the SCO employees really that naive that they thought SCO would actually win thier case?

    Sounds like SCO was putting all thier eggs in one basket and TUX came and sat on them.

  73. Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 5, Funny

    as apparently Mr. Burns is running SCO and has a whole team of Homer Simpsons working for him. :)

    --
    Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
    1. Re:Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by 13Echo · · Score: 1

      Excellent, Smithers!

    2. Re:Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by mr_z_beeblebrox · · Score: 1

      as apparently Mr. Burns is running SCO and has a whole team of Homer Simpsons working for him. :)

      Doh!!

    3. Re:Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In case nobody noticed the boys from Redmond have got caught with thier hand in the cookie jar.
      They have told RBC to fold thier hand,The game is over. Baystar thinks they have a full house and don't want to fold, RBC will take a very small loss thanks to Baystar who coughed up $20m to RBC to continue playing. The boys from SCO will retire rich
      well beyond the companys orginal expectations. Game
      set and match

    4. Re:Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by KageMonkey · · Score: 0

      Actually, SCO has a whole team of Lionel Hutz lawyers working there.

    5. Re:Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by Tarantolato · · Score: 1

      You're German, aren't you

    6. Re:Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if you don't pay the license fee, they'll release the lawyers, or the bees, or the lawyers with bees in their mouths and when they litigate, they shoot bees at you.

  74. No, it goes like this. by autopr0n · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Baystar has what, $80 million in SCO?. If sco wins, they'll be worth billions. So even if there's only a 1% they win, it's still worth the risk.

    But, you say, they'll lose all their money if they lose!

    That's not true either. Baystar can invest another X in Linux companies, which, if SCO wins will see their stock rise by, suppose, Y%. As long as X * Y > X + 80 million, Baystar will make a profit. And, if SCO wins, they make an emense profit.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:No, it goes like this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "But, you say, they'll lose all their money if they lose!"

      Probably not.

      Funding rounds of troubled companies that I'be been involved with have typically had enough strings attached that let them get money out earlier than the unfortunate previous investors.

      During the .com days I've heard of some pretty bizzare ones, such as...

      I'll invest but only if you change your marketing programs to buy ad space on my portal

      I'll invest but only if you use my partner's overpriced PR firm

      I'll invest but only if you hire my husband as CFO for a higher sallary than any of you

      we want our participating prefered stock with 4X liquidation preferences; and all previous rounds owners to waive their preferences

      I've heard other companies had even worse clauses, like: "this clause lets us convert our stock to debt so we can get ahead of other guys in bankrupcies".

    2. Re:No, it goes like this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, if SCO wins, they make an emense (sic) profit.

      May I suggest that you pay particular attention to the spelling of words you choose to highlight? Slight mistakes are easy to overlook, but bold text makes an immense difference in how obvious your typos are.

    3. Re:No, it goes like this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're gonna make it bold, make it right: immense.

      - Grammar Nazi

    4. Re:No, it goes like this. by greenguy · · Score: 1

      they make an emense profit.

      (Emphasis, at least the bolded part, in original.)

      You must use that same same spellchecker that at least one Canadian has been unable to find. Don't feel bad, I couldn't find a spellcheker on the post page, either.

      --
      What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
    5. Re:No, it goes like this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they make an emense profit.

      What a fscking tool.

      You go to all that effort to BOLD a word, and then you still MISSPELL it. Definitely one of the more egregious spelling errors that I've ever seen on Slashdot.

      Here, let me give you a link to the word you're looking for: immense.

      There, that wasn't so hard was it?

  75. Burn, SCO, B-U-R-N !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Burn, SCO, B-U-R-N !!!

  76. Shining? by UrgleHoth · · Score: 1

    SCO is a shining example

    I'm not sure I'd want to use shining to describe SCO. It just sounds too.... positive, like a shining pile of poo.

    What yould you use in its place?

    --

    Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
    1. Re:Shining? by ron_ivi · · Score: 1

      I think he was referring to shining as in The Shining(1980)

  77. Investment advice please by Anonym0us+Cow+Herd · · Score: 2, Interesting
    An investing question from a non expert.

    If RBC places an order sell these freaking shares at any price, as fast as you can!!! for a volume of 740,740 shares...

    would this potentially affect the stock price?

    in what way might the price be affected?

    what effect, if any, might this have on the long term outlook of the company?

    are there any other concerns a wise investor should have?


    Any good investing tips appreciated. (Especially when they are from an internet site! rather than from someone qualified to give investment advice.)

    Thanks!

    --
    The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
    1. Re:Investment advice please by UrgleHoth · · Score: 1

      Well, you just might enable someone to buy 31337 shares for $0.01 each

      --

      Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
    2. Re:Investment advice please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      > buy 31337 shares for $0.01 each


      BOIES 2LOSE!

    3. Re:Investment advice please by mikeee · · Score: 1

      The stock price would crash.

      They won't.

      They'll feed it into a computer program that'll sell 5k shares here and 5k there on a dozen different official and unofficial exchanges in such a way that it's not blatently obvious what's going on.

      But there's no way you can disguise that sell volume on a stock with this volume; I suspect that'd do it over more than one day, and you might well see the price dropping pretty sharply...

  78. Fund and Games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    However I did shuffle my mutual funds to non-sco funds and was clear about my reasons for doing so.

    Oh, that's a good idea. I'll have to check my holdings to see is any own SCOX. Anyone know any funds that hold SCO right off?

  79. Depends what they're doing by vlad_petric · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Think how much loss in revenue to Linux companies they created ... There are quite a few executives who thought "let's wait until the trial is over before we make any move to Linux".

    Such lawyers destroy, people employed by Linux companies create, and generate real economical value.

    --

    The Raven

  80. BIAS REPORTING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What kind of non biased opinion can you expect from the lunixinsider on the SCO case.

    Fucking unbeliveable.

    Next they will be calling press releases news and not propganda.

  81. Image is loading slowly, here's the text: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since that image is loading sloooooowly, I thought I'd give the rest of you the text of it:

    Calvin (to Hobbes): Do you have any money?
    Hobbes: No.
    --
    Calvin: Hmm... How can we get some?
    --
    (Both stand around thinking for a frame.)
    --
    Calvin: Who do we know that we could sue?

  82. Obligatory TMBG Quote by Snap+E+Tom · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

    1. Re:Obligatory TMBG Quote by bshroyer · · Score: 1

      "I know that politics bore you, and I feel like a hypocrite talking to you, and your racist friends."

      (?)

      or was it "This is where the party ends" ?

      --
      The cure for cancer is coming: Reovirus
  83. From the article... by cbovasso · · Score: 1

    "SCO and the associated SCO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The SCO Group, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of their respective owners."

    man is that easier said then done, huh?

    --
    I ask for a car and I get a computer. How's about that for being born under a bad .sig?
  84. Selling to Baystar? Huh? by menscher · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I thought Baystar wanted out? Why would they be buying more stock? Anyone else confused? Or am I missing something obvious?

  85. Re:good by Hays · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think a reasonably smart SCO employ would have been sending out resumes for the past 6 months.

  86. MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Use of facts in a slashdot discussion. Completely inappropriate.

    1. Re:Mod Parent Down by fingerfucker · · Score: 1

      Huh? I was the one using multiple consecutive !-s, but correctly outside of the quotes. I might have missed your point about USATODAY.

  87. Not MS - Sun by wowbagger · · Score: 1

    MS wouldn't touch SCO directly with a ten metre pole.

    But Sun, who is in the business of Unix, might....

    <shudder>

    1. Re:Not MS - Sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sun will buy SCO. With what?

    2. Re:Not MS - Sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sun will buy SCO. With what?

      Extrapoloating the trend in SCO stock price, the change buried in the back of Scott McNealy's couch.

  88. Re:good by vxvxvxvx · · Score: 1

    How many people does it take to make "large numbers" .. I guess living in the backyard of a major industrial company, anything less than a thousand seems like a drop in the bucket. Big deal, SCO with it's 270ish employees is going to lay off another 10%? The local fast food joint going out of business puts more out of work than that!

  89. SCO is not a corp.; it's a publicly traded lawsuit by moeymo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So much of the company's value is in its claim to Unix/Linux and so little in its actual products. If the suit fails, SCO will go.

    Sell!

  90. Maybe Mike Rowe Soft Could Do It... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmmmm.... just buys more time for windows grants at the patent office... seriously, would it surprise you if an un-named/shell corporation steps forward and provides them with the capital they need to become liquid again.... de-ja what?

  91. Feel sorry for laid offs peeps? by FerretFrottage · · Score: 0

    It always sucks when that happens, especially to our "kind", but you got to wonder how many got what they deserve.

    If you were a developer and hadn't turned towards the darkside, you should have been looking elsewhere (maybe IBM?) If you stayed because you thought they had a chance, I guess sco thought you didn't. Jobs are still tought to come by, but no developer/techie/IT, et al at sco should have been surprised by this--they had over a year to prepare.

    If you were in marketing/sales and didn't know any better, well that's marketing for you and you can thank the lawyer who has now replaced you.

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  92. Risk vs Reward by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Funny
    Too bad Darl probably won't suffer too badly for driving the company into the ground like this. The risk/reward of being a CEO should be more along the lines of:

    Stock goes up => Big Bonus

    Stock goes down => We get your liver

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Risk vs Reward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      he should be thrown in jail and get fucked by a darkie (or whitie).

    2. Re:Risk vs Reward by mec · · Score: 1

      Have you looked at Darl's compensation package?

      (1) What was the price of SCOX the day Darl took office?
      (2) What is the price of SCOX now?
      (3) How much stock has Darl sold in the meantime?

      Not to defend SCO, because I will be very happy to see them reduced to a smoking bankrupt shell. However, SCOX has gone up 500% since Darl took over less than two years ago; Darl gets paid mostly in stock; and he hasn't sold any of the stock yet.

      Expecting to be moderated: -1, inconvenient facts that contravene the Slashdot worldview.

  93. STOP! by ArchAngelQ · · Score: 1

    Slashdot editors, PLEASE stop refering to Santa Cruz, CA, when talking about SCO. It is no longer Santa Cruz Operations. It hasn't been for years! That POS company has been a bad enough black spot on this otherwise very cool town long enough. It is 'The SCO Group', and SCO no longer in any way refers to Santa Cruz. Thank you.

  94. Ah... by fizban · · Score: 1

    Oh, schadenfreude! Oh, schadenfreude! Oh, how I love thee, schadenfreude!

    --

    +1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.

  95. True. by DAldredge · · Score: 1

    Because a job that pays little and has no insurance is a good as a well paying job!!!

  96. burn, baby burn... by Hooya · · Score: 1

    i love the 60s or the 70s or whatever decade 'disco inferno' came out..

  97. What if....... by zakezuke · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is neither a flame nor usual SCO bashing.

    My impression of SCO was it was the product you bought 10 years ago because that power accounting and database software was written for it, dated but does the job and has never rarely failed. Near as I'm aware, they had a somewhat stable customer base, and while they didn't inovate, they started to incorperate much in the way of OSS in order to keep up with the pack, and perhaps actually get some new customers. Selling them old old and true power apps, but save them lots of money by giving them Samba.

    I am curious about one thing. What if SCO never fired the first shot in this IP war? Would they still need to downsize? Would they still be considered a dying company? Would it be possible for SCO to continue to exist supplying to main stream folk or would they have simply continued to fade away? After all a successful company isn't always the one with the most money, but one which has found a balance between supply and demand, much easier with a software company then one which produces a physical product.

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
    1. Re:What if....... by belmolis · · Score: 1

      SCO was doing poorly when they filed the suit. Their software was not all that good and wasn't doing very well even in the proprietary market. Furthermore, their market was being undercut by the various FLOSS versions of UNIX, particularly GNU/Linux. So, no, even if they hadn't filed the suit, it was a company whose business was in decline and that could be expected to continue to go downhill.

    2. Re:What if....... by stwrtpj · · Score: 1
      I am curious about one thing. What if SCO never fired the first shot in this IP war? Would they still need to downsize? Would they still be considered a dying company?

      It is possible that if they had decided to stick to selling an actual product, they may still have been beaten down and would still be considered a dying company, if for no other reason than the competition in the marketplace is fierce.

      But if the company did fold, at least one could say that they did it "honestly". Instead, they now have to face the possibility of going down in flames because of monumentally stupid and potentially illegal actions, thus gaining infamy for themselves in the annals of business, in effect becoming for the IT industry what Enron became for the power industry.

      --
      Karma: Frotzed (mostly due to the Frobozz Magic Karma Company)
    3. Re:What if....... by _|()|\| · · Score: 2, Insightful
      What if SCO never fired the first shot in this IP war? ... Would it be possible for SCO to continue to exist supplying to main stream folk or would they have simply continued to fade away?

      We could consider numerous "what-if" scenarios. Most of the good ones would require smarter, more visionary executives than Caldera or SCO ever employed. Part of Red Hat's continued success is due to strategic investments in research and development, especially the kernel improvements by Alan Cox, Stephen Tweedie, and Ingo Molnar. SuSE has made similar investments, garnering the attention of IBM and Novell.

      I don't think OpenServer and UnixWare were good enough, especially under the care of such a small company, to compete with Linux or BSD. System V was a significant, though largely symbolic, asset. Caldera could have parlayed it into success in the Linux market. (Who knows: UnitedLinux might have grown to 1.1 or 2.0.) Instead, it was eaten from the inside out by old-SCO opportunists.

    4. Re:What if....... by mec · · Score: 2, Informative

      SCO balance sheet

      Have a look at the figures for October 2001 versus October 2002. In October 2002, SCO had $21 million in current assets and $27 million in current liabilities.

      SCO income statement

      In the year ended October 2002, SCO had a net loss of $25 million.

      SCO would have died some time in spring or summer 2003 without the massive cash infusion from Microsoft and Sun. All those employees would have been laid off a year ago. These employees kept their jobs for a year longer (and for 75% of them, they still are keeping their jobs) because of this evil, evil lawsuit. (And no, I don't think that makes the lawsuit a good thing).

    5. Re:What if....... by castlec · · Score: 1

      Sorry to point this out but I had to laugh when I read it :o)

      My impression of SCO was it was the product you bought 10 years ago because that power accounting and database software was written for it, dated but does the job and has never rarely failed.

      So SCO was famous for software that always failed often. I assume you meant never really failed but I still had to laugh.

      --
      When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
  98. Among the many things that piss me off... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are these quotes in every friggin SCO press release...

    "a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions and the owner of the UNIX operating system"

    and ...

    "The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX - News) helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow their businesses with UNIX business solutions."

    Both statements are pure crap.

  99. no mention of legal tangles by pohl · · Score: 1

    I'm amazed that the article has no mention of the legal battles that SCO is engaed in. There's an entire paragraph "About SCO", but nothing about what the company actually engages in on a day-to-day basis. How could the author justify the omission of such material?

    --

    The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...

    1. Re:no mention of legal tangles by ctid · · Score: 1

      I think the "About SCO" bit was supplied by SCO or their PR people.

      --
      Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
  100. Re:Selling to Baystar? Huh? by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They don't want out. Baystar was using the threat of dumping their stock to keep SCO managment in line. They wanted SCO to halt what was left of their software development and sales operations and "concentrate on IP licensing and enforcment". Darl and co. agreed, Baystar withdrew their threat, and now we're seeing the last of SCO's programmers getting downsized.

    --
    0 1 - just my two bits
  101. god bless their cold hearts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you deserve a beer you hosers !

  102. Didio's next comments: by schon · · Score: 2, Funny


    "I think this is great for SCO - RBC decided that it loved them so much, that it chose to convert 10,000 of its' A-1 shares to common stock, at over TWICE the market rate! How much more of a vote of confidence can you get?

    "Their total relinquishment of any controlling interest in SCO is a full ringing endorsement of the current SCO management and business direction.

    "Combine this with the fact that the balance of their A-1 shares went to Baystar, a company that has come out in full support of SCO's legal case, means that this is all good news!"
    </voice>

    I feel dirty now.

  103. Dirty drug infested hippy town by eadint · · Score: 1

    I think SCO makes santa cruz look better than its normal consideration

    1. Re:Dirty drug infested hippy town by Elentar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As opposed to dirty drug-infested cowtowns (alcohol) or dirty drug-infested cities, or dirty drug-infested redneck towns, or just plain dirty drug-infested _any place_.

      Or, if you prefer, dirty Christian-infested towns. Why it's illegal to smoke a joint but perfectly legal for zealots to brainwash children, to deny adults the right to make their own medical choices, to teach women that they are secondary to men, to send the poor and minorities off to die while the rich laugh, to allow corporations to dictate legislation and to force the values of a few hypocrites onto people who don't agree with them, I will never understand.

      I live in Santa Cruz, and I believe in letting people live the life they have chosen for themselves, to the greatest extent possible. You will never find me living in a bible town in Georgia, because I refuse to surround myself with backward, living-in-denial unhappy religious fanatics taking out their unnatural angst in the area I live in.

      To those of you who practice religion and let it simply influence your innate sense of moral purpose, I give my compliments. If you must chose one, always chose the Covenenant of Grace over the Covenant of Works.

      -Elentar

      --
      The wheel it turns, around and around, with an ancient rumbling sound.
    2. Re:Dirty drug infested hippy town by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like a great place if it scares away assholes like you.

  104. Re:Oh, shut the fuck up by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Somethings are right and some are wrong.

    I have stood up for what I believe and have paid the costs more than once. IOW, I have quit and been fired for refusing to do the wrong thing & I do have a family.

  105. Martyrdom spin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, they will probably play a martyrdom card. HOwever, it will ring hollow as McBride, his brother, and SCO execs have made a shitload of money out of this.

    Hopefully there will be an SEC investigation.... destroying your own public company for personal profit sounds illegal to me.

    1. Re:Martyrdom spin by AndyCap · · Score: 1

      Maybe Darl McBride & Co should have made their tax-deductible contributions to www.spr.org this year?
      --

  106. Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by ErikTheRed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok, so while there is some short-term negative publicity around one major investor bailing, it leaves Baystar capital with much more power over SCO. It's widely conjectured that Baystar's recent abortive bailing-out was actually just a public slap to SCO to get them to make some executive changes. Now Baystar's leverage is increased substantially. It has occurred to myself and to others that what Baystar may be able to do is effectively "foreclose" on SCO - not in the traditional debt sense, but they'll be able to stick a gun to SCO's head and force them to replace board members under threat of Baystar's pulling out, which would effectively bankrupt SCO. Round one - replace the CFO. Round two - put some of our buddies here on the board to provide you with some sage advice.

    Then we have Baystar (the Microsoft puppet) effectively inheriting all of the IP claims (by proxy, but the result is the same), which they think are meritorious. This could result in a whole new round of litigation run by someone who's not a complete jackass.

    The new litigation may (will)also be a complete pile of bullshit, but it still ties things up in the courts for years. Be afraid, very afraid.

    --

    Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
    1. Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Baystar actually follows through and does continue to attack after SCO is dead (using their IP), the only conclusion can be is that they are expecting a future payoff in some form from Microsoft, probably in the form of a unwritten agreement.

      Investment firms, unlike Microsoft, could care less about harming GNU/Linux through FUD'ing. They only do things when they know there is money at the end of the tunnel for doing them.

    2. Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Won't that sort of not go down well for MS? You know, being under fire for violating antitrust laws and the like.

    3. Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by ErikTheRed · · Score: 2, Funny
      You know, being under fire for violating antitrust laws and the like.
      Google the following terms: Advocate, Follower, Toady, Cat's Paw, Pawn, Dupe, Patsy, Puppet, Stooge, Tool, Minion, Cohort, and Mini-Me.
      --

      Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
    4. Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by SphericalCrusher · · Score: 1

      Since Baystar does have that much power over them now, I think it would be best for them to foreclose SCO. Not because I hate them, but because it just looks bad if the world knows Baystar basically owns SCO and is still letting them run about.

      Either good or evil, I think it'll be a good business move to just shut SCO the hell up.

      --
      "Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
    5. Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by Bush+Pig · · Score: 1

      I'm sure they have a certain amount of plausible deniability. I doubt if there's a (discoverable) paper trail.

      --
      What a long, strange trip it's been.
    6. Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It has occurred to myself

      It has occurred to me

  107. Shareholders' lament by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    Oh my Darl
    Oh my Darl
    Oh my Da-a-a-arl Clementine
    My money is lost and gone forever
    SCO closed at five ninety ni-i-i-ine

    (If you "get" this, you're probably over 50)

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
    1. Re:Shareholders' lament by Backov · · Score: 2, Funny

      Alternatively, you could have watched lots of Bugs Bunny as a child, which is how I know that song.

      --
      In the law there is no overlap between theft and copyright infringement whatsoever.
    2. Re:Shareholders' lament by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or that blue dog with the banjo from Yogi Bear's treasure hunt.

    3. Re:Shareholders' lament by BCW2 · · Score: 1

      Or any number of westerns from the 50's & 60's.

      --
      Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
  108. BayStar webmaster think strategy's upside down. by ron_ivi · · Score: 4, Funny
    I find it quite amusng that the strategy page of the baystar website is some upside down guys (looks like his head is in the sand) with the caption "look beyond".

    Wonder if their webmaster's making fun of them. In addition the funny image, of course netcraft confirms baystar's running BSD. Does that mean they're dead?

  109. Even Better... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In A.D. 2003
    War was beginning

    Darl: What happen?
    Blake: Somebody set up us the DDOS.
    Mark: We get signal.
    Darl: What!
    Blake: Main screen turn on.
    Darl: It's You!!
    Linus: How are you gentlemen!!
    Linus: All your IP are belong to us.
    Linus: You are on the way to destruction.
    Darl: What you say!!
    Linus: You have no chance to survive make your time.
    Linus: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
    Darl: Take off every 'IP claim'!!
    Blake: You know what you doing.
    Darl: Move 'IP claim'.
    Darl: For great injustice.

    1. Re:Even Better... by nlindstrom · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Mod the parent up! Great stuff!

    2. Re:Even Better... by dresgarcia · · Score: 1

      RFLMAO, best AYBABTU reference EVER!

    3. Re:Even Better... by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 1

      We are Linux. You will be assimilated. Your physical and intellectual property will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.

    4. Re:Even Better... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Subject: Sad news ... Darl McBride, dead at 54

      I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Legal Fiction/Fantasy writer Darl McBride was found dead in his Utah home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular satire. Truly a Microsoft icon.
  110. I should hope NOT by stealth.c · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It was SCO that kept begging for more time, SCO that kept offering cumbersome, insufficient responses, SCO that kept showing up at deadlines empty-handed, SCO that came up with every excuse it possibly could to never actually be in a court room. IBM has quietly bided its time, patiently giving SCO all the rope it ever wanted. And now, precisely as expected, they hang themselves.

    It shouldn't be difficult to counter the spin when the facts are on your side.

    1. Re:I should hope NOT by thebatlab · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "It shouldn't be difficult to counter the spin when the facts are on your side."

      Are you sure about that? Facts generally get overridden by whoever is yelling the loudest.

  111. Now what would be great... by bigattichouse · · Score: 1

    would be a firesale on a bankrupt SCO IP, that was donated to the OSS effort.

    --
    meh
  112. Interesting.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...don't rats desert a sinking ship first?

  113. Guess it depends on who you are... by Chordonblue · · Score: 1

    You know, it's funny. Where I live I continue to see massive construction projects. I see jobs of every type springing up. We've lost far less students due to financial hardship this year. Admissions are up. Donations are up. In short, my spider senses tell ME that things ARE looking up.

    Unless you live in Kalifornia, where you can expect some real issues due to immigration, high taxes/cost of living, inflated real estate, and, thanks to NBC, fear of earthquakes - most of the country appears to be on a rebound.

    Look, I realize that there are those of you who don't want to hear this kind of good news (or anything that might relect well on the current administration), but it's true from my perspective at least. I don't need the government OR Google to prove the case for me. It's seems pretty clear all on it's own.

    One thing is for sure, it might not be the economy of 1998, but it's certainly NOT 2002!

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
    1. Re:Guess it depends on who you are... by Penguinshit · · Score: 1


      I'm going to claim that the "Recovery" is in spite of the Administration. With proper stewardship, the "Bubble Collapse" would have been a relatively short correction with a minimum of adverse affect upon the working populace.

      Instead, we saw what was forecast as a 6-month slowdown become a 3-year recession. Numbers games were played by the Administration with zero sustainability ("let's give everyone a loan against next year's taxes.. oh, look; consumer spending went up! The economy is saved!"). Greenspan was forced to drop interest rates to the floor in order to keep money being used (in the form of such things as zero-interest car financing and cash-out refinancing of houses purchased during the Boom).

      I charge that the Bush Administration has been negligent in letting the domestic economy flounder while it pursues its selfish foreign interests. The "recovery" we see now is in spite of the Administration. The unemployment rate has as much to do with people (like myself) who have fallen off the chart (not collecting unemployment anymore, unable to file a new claim, subsisting on part-time self-employment while looking for another stable job) as people actually employed per population.

      Company profits boosting the stock numbers has much to do with layoffs and outsourcing. This is not sustainable.

    2. Re:Guess it depends on who you are... by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 2, Interesting
      From Philadelphia, New York, and Virginia things are pretty bleak if you want to work for anything more than $8/hour.

      I've had companies tell me to my face that they aren't looking from someone with such "Senior" qualifications as mine. Read that they found a kid out of school who doesn't have a family to support and will work for circus peanuts and a pat on the head.

      Keep in mind, I'm 29, and if that qualifies me for being an old-timer in industry I can't imagine what a 45 year old must be going through. I know of more than one former Engineer who is driving a bus right now to make ends meet. Of the 45 year old variety, mind you.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
    3. Re:Guess it depends on who you are... by Phragmen-Lindelof · · Score: 1

      I live in an extremely Republican state and layoffs in ("heavy") industry are continuuing. One of the things keeping us going is public (school and highway) construction; jobs paid for by the taxpayers. I have no idea how California is doing but much of the rest of the country is not doing well. (Perhaps Arnold has single-handedly fixed the California economy?) Any claims that good jobs are increasing would be hard to justify, at least around here.
      By the way, do we need a special category for "political trolls"? Personally, I am doing fine but I know several IT people (e.g. in our local LUG) who have been unemployed or underemployed for a long time. It seems unkind to imply that people who have been laid off are just too lazy to really look for work since the economy is (supposedly) doing well. Also, if someone is concerned about people recently laid off by SCO, I would think s/he would be even more concerned about people who have been laid off for years.

    4. Re:Guess it depends on who you are... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like it depends what state you are in. In my "extremely" Democratic state, jobs are on the rise, large businesses are getting busy, small business owners stopped complaining about six months ago, they're buying new equipment, my local lug has had job postings hitting the list and site since Fall 2003, with an increasing frequency in the last 3-5 months, and the salaries/wages offered are back in the low end of the high range after sitting in a range so low as to prompt speculation about job posts designed solely to get around immigration law.

      The last 3-4 years, the job postings on the lug list have been so rare that I didn't realize how valuable a lug list can be (just getting into linux about that time). The job posts that started coming more frequently last fall led me to suspect that the economy was turning around. When they really started coming in heavy the beginning of this year, I was just as puzzled about the nationwide job number reports that I suspected something was wrong with them. After continued postings, and increased traffic being reported on the highways during rush hour to silicon valley, that confirmed my suspicions that there was something wrong with the job numbers. And as for being out of work, the more senior, more experienced members of the list have commented that there is more work than they can handle, and work is available if you know what you are doing, and have the experience to back it up. These comments were hitting the list prior to, and after fall 2001.

      Job numbers are a lagging indicator for a turnaround in the economy. They finally did turnaround, confirming the condition of the economy that I figured out between a lug list and small business owners' reports of whom I know personally, more than 4 months ago.

      Seeing hamburger flipping job comments, and denials about the current state of the economy, (or about higher debt (by cash-out refinancing at a lower rate)), its easy to see who those posters will be voting for. I have my own opinions as to who should be voted into office, or out of office (and they cross party lines every election), but I never let the party line cloud reality, or facts. Some people use carefully selected facts to justify their positions. I recognize facts for what they are, and give credit where credit is due. Both administrations, the current, and the former, each deserve credit in some areas, and each deserve criticism and blame in others.

      Don't let your anger or your politics cloud your view of, or your dismissal of, the facts. Doing so strengthens your argument. Not doing so, as some of the other posts show, make it obvious, their political persuasion, and that they are carrying the torch for their party. The economy is gaining strength, it is strong by economists' perspectives, it is far better than many other nations right now, and if it the rate of growth increases too much, we'll be in trouble all over again, and this time next year /.'ers will be arguing over who caused inflation, and why interest rates are so high, why is the dollar so strong, and why are imports increasing so much and why are exports dying? And the finger pointing takes on a new dimension.

      As for California, they were in trouble, are in trouble, and will be in trouble in the future. They have more problems they can't fix, and won't be fixing for a long time. Businesses are leaving, Intel stated several years ago that they'll never build another fab in California, and other businesses are taking Intel's cue. Arnold has no control over the situation. He's in charge of a train that was a runaway before he took office, and he's riding a runaway train with controls that don't work. The train wreck coming in California has taken many years of bad legislation to create, and unfortunately, will affect everyone in the nation when the condition finally matures.

  114. Had to cover shorts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Remember they said when they first got into this, that they were covering short positions. Anything they shorted above the $13.50 price is now profit.

    1. Re:Had to cover shorts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they had shorts, then they really are cashing out, because they'll use this stock to cover the short. Saeed al-Sahaf is a raving loony.

  115. MOD PARENT UP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    +5 insightful

  116. SCO going to India? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Layoffs? So evil can be offshored also, eh?

  117. $80 million? It was $20M before today by McSpew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Baystar has what, $80 million in SCO?

    What? The original Baystar/RBC investment was $50 million combined, of which, Baystar's part was $20 million. RBC picked up the other $30 million. Today, RBC converted one-third of its investment into SCOX common stock. The remaining two-thirds was sold to Baystar for an undisclosed sum of money, but you can bet it's a helluvalot less than the original $20 million Baystar spent for the same quantity of Series A-1 shares in October.

    To be blunt, RBC took it in the shorts on this investment. Baystar screwed them hard. Baystar hooked RBC up with the original PIPE, and then turned around and flushed the value down the toilet with their notice to SCO that they intended to get their money back. They didn't give any indication to RBC about the grounds they were using to justify their demand for the return of capital, so RBC had to stand by and watch their own deadline for making a similar demand expire.

    Once that deadline passed, Baystar effectively had first-dibs on picking over SCO's carcass in an ensuing fight. RBC would have to wait until after Baystar got its money back (even though Baystar's investment was smaller) before making any attempt to recover its own investment. This forced RBC's hand. They could sit around and watch their entire $30 million get flushed down the drain, or they could sell (at a loss) most of their investment to Baystar and convert the rest to common stock (at a price that's nearly 2.5x the market price for those common stock shares) in the hopes that they'll get something if SCO wins the lottery.

    Unless RBC never expected to make money on this deal for some obscure tax benefit, they got hosed badly. I'd expect to see the idiot at RBC who signed off on this deal resigning very soon to "pursue other opportunities."

    Baystar, meanwhile, doubles their position in SCO's Series A-1 convertible preferred stock for a sum that's almost certainly a lot less than the $20 million they paid for the other 20,000 shares, thus reducing their average share price and giving them an ironclad fist around SCO's throat.

    Baystar's not as stupid as we originally thought. RBC, meanwhile, comes off looking much stupider than we originally thought.

    1. Re:$80 million? It was $20M before today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      History just repeats itself. In helping Microsoft screw Linux, Paul Allen (through Baystar) screws RBC (Canada).

      Last year, in order to screw Linux, Microsoft aided Paul Allen (through Vector investment corp.) to kneecap and 0wn Corel (Canada) using barely disguised criminal manipulation.

      I notice a pattern here. Of course Canadian regulators and courts are perfectly happy with all this manipulation.

  118. Whew. by DJTodd242 · · Score: 1

    As an RBC employee and stockholder, thank GOD we got out of that one. It really set my teeth on edge when I found out that RBC had invested in those A**clowns.

  119. Not Mao, Lao. by MsGeek · · Score: 1

    This is a quote from the Dao Deh Jing, Lao-Tzu's classic philosophical treatise.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    1. Re:Not Mao, Lao. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      Not Mao, Lao.

      This is a quote from the Dao Deh Jing, Lao-Tzu's classic philosophical treatise.


      Don't be TOO hard on him. It was an "off by one" error. B-)

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    2. Re:Not Mao, Lao. by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1

      Though to his credit, Mao did take his people on a Long March.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
    3. Re:Not Mao, Lao. by jack_csk · · Score: 1

      Ya know, most \.ers just care for fun and not correctness for the quote.

      See your score, and compare to the parent...

    4. Re:Not Mao, Lao. by Glowing+Fish · · Score: 1

      Don't confuse a humanitarian like Mao with a vicious fuckwit like Lao.

      --
      Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
  120. Re:Oh, shut the fuck up by DAldredge · · Score: 1

    If you work for or own the site below your /. UID perhaps you should rethink posting it on /. because your behavior could lead one to believe that your 'code of ethics' is complete and total bullshit.

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    We will uphold the law and policies as established on our clientsâ(TM) systems and networks. Where the law is not clear, or appears to be in conflict with our ethical standards, we will exercise sound judgment.

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    Lindstrom Consulting shall keep all communications to the highest standards of professional behavior.
    We will keep our clients informed about matters that might affect the work we are performing for them, such as conditions of acceptable use, sharing and availability of common resources, maintenance of security, occurrence of system monitoring, and any applicable legal obligations so long as we are providing information technology consulting services to them. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that such information is presented in a manner calculated to ensure our clientsâ(TM) awareness and understanding.

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    Lindstrom Consulting shall at all times display complete professionalism.
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  121. Job switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    My neighbor left his job at a Canopy company located in Lindon, Utah about a year ago, not too long after this got started. Now he works for Novell.

  122. Kickass! by Dalroth · · Score: 1

    Awesome! I work for RBC, and all I can say is that I am very pleased with this. I felt absolutely betrayed when I heard the announcement the first time. Since then, my probes into upper management lead me to no satisfactory answers. It's nice to see my management is finally getting it's act together on this issue.

  123. Re:Oh, shut the fuck up by nlindstrom · · Score: 0, Troll
    This thread is rapidly headed down troll-lane, but I'll bite and post one last reply: I fail to see the connection between what a web site says and what I've said on /.

    You've just proven your idiocy again. Congratulations!

    Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

  124. You're perceptive, however by tkrotchko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember that IBM may have a substantial claim against SCO, Novell, claims it actually owns the IP, and even Red Hat may get a whack.

    Best case scenario is (a) Novell does in fact show that it owns SYS V (because all claims against Unix would be gone because Novell has released GPL code (b) IBM wins the suit and owns the remaining SCO assets (c) Daryl freaks and essentially closes the company (d) Baystar is left holding the bag (e) some DA grows a set and starts an investigation and indicts a lot of people

    You've got to admit, that would be justice in every quarter. Complete win for Linux.

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
    1. Re:You're perceptive, however by ErikTheRed · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, but you're assuming that A) SCO's actual intent is to win the Lawsuit (and not just FUD Linux), and B) Baystar loves SCO's management and believes in them soooo much that they will let them continue on down their merry path to distruction.

      Bzzzzzzt! Thank you for playing.

      Once Baystar controls SCO, they can have SCO sell their IP "assets" or interests or whatever to another company (let's call it BaySCO). The amount could even be something as ridiculous as CN$1 (a loony for a bunch of loonies). The incoming legal fire from IBM et al turns SCO into a smoking crater, but then BaySCO is free to start the whole process all over again. At this point, IBM & friends can essentially try to get a court to declare (without naming a specific defendant) that there is no infringement, breach of contract, etc., but even the threats down the road are really limited only by BaySCO (and their successors') imagination - keep in mind that the SCO complaints against IBM over the last year or so have changed so much as to not even resemble the original suit filed.

      --

      Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
    2. Re:You're perceptive, however by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "BaySCO" thing is has even less of a shot than SCO did. Besides, SCO still has a dealer network and an installed base that's worth a little money

      More likely
      1) Investors get Darl & Pals fired
      2) New Management drops the suit with IBM & everyone else and says they're very very sorry.
      3) IBM and RedHat get an apology and a promise never to do it again
      4) Baystar sells SCOs assets to Computer Associates or someone and gets some return on their investment.

    3. Re:You're perceptive, however by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Bzzzzzzt! Thank you for playing.

      twat.

    4. Re:You're perceptive, however by zurab · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your sarcasm in (A) and (B) are contradictory. Are you saying that Baystar doesn't want SCO to win the IBM lawsuit? The way I see it is that SCO (i.e. their management) never wanted to win a lawsuit, they just wanted to cash out before it was too late for SCO the company.

      Unless you are saying that both Baystar and Royal Bank of Canada knew this prior to their investments; AND Baystar just wanted to replace the management and take over the company "assets" from the very beginning when they considered their investments. In that case, it's who's playing who. But I don't think so, I think they realized they were fooled and Baystar now realizes they have a tough decision to make whether it's worth to grab onto the last straws. Because the way the lawsuit is heading right now is that SCO is not providing anything substantial, while IBM will likely nail SCO in their countersuit. So what would you do from this point on if you were Baystar in this situation? I'd want my money back too, and what Baystar is doing is the only way to get it back.

  125. I AM CANADIAN by CanadianCrackPot · · Score: 0

    Oh I am so proud of the pressure I put on RBC now! WOHOOOOO!

    --
    Good programmers drink beer to relieve job stress.
    Great programmers drink hard liquor and work best hungover.
  126. The only task remaining... by eagl · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The company is going away, so the only thing remaining is to ensure that the people responsible for unleashing the lawsuits and threats don't come away from this mess with any extra cash in their pockets. They started the whole lawsuit thing to get rich off of other people's work, and it would be a shame if the top management who dreamed up the scheme got away with more than cab fare in their pockets.

    Of course the lawyers are getting away with most of the profit, but everyone knows that shooting lawyers is the only way to keep them from getting rich off of everyone else's problems so there's no polite solution there.

  127. Excellent, they're losing a fortune on the deal by Performer+Guy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They've just managed to half their money with this deal, rather than try to get blood out of the SCO stone they're converting to common stock which they're entitled to do, but if you look at the numbers each $1000 preferred share becomes several shares of common stock valued at around $440. Excuse me for finding this hillarious. They thought they could make a quick buck by funsing a viscious and meritless intellectual property attack on IBM and the Linux community in general. Now they're paying the price. I just hope SCO stock tanks some more before these Canadian vultures can cash out.

    As for Baystar trying to get blood out of the stone they helped forge, same story, let's hope they never recoup their cash. Maybe it'll be a lesson to the next bunch of greedy S.O.B.s who think about funding the next group of crooks to come along.

  128. Mod Parent Down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    USATODAY is an unreliable source, and they use multiple consecutive !s.

  129. nothing to fear, but fear itself.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The creation of fear is quite likely the primary intent of the lawsuits in the first place.

    If the suits are faced with the decision of whether to choose windows or linux, and they think, "hmmm, well there may be potential legal issues with Linux," and hence pick windows, then SCO will have done its job.

    So, DON'T be afraid. Fear is the mind killer...

    --A/C

  130. ... The end, not really, or not quiet... by fatgeekuk · · Score: 1

    More likely, then end of the beginning.

    With this I forcee SCO turning from a software company with a panchance for litigation into an IP holder whos only projected revenue stream is lawsuits.

    This just signals a focusing of SCOs efforts away from what was a core business, SOFTWARE, and onto what is now its business model (being redmonds courtroom distraction), this is just a holding measure to try to give microsoft the breathing room to change the game again.

    with DRM, system management tools and the ubiquity of the media player for HDTV DVD, they are looking to lock out all other competition while everyone is focused on the yapping of this annoying little puppet.

    "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, he is of no consequence"

    Finished, off to bed.

  131. And don't forget.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Three, if you count Jean Chretien's frenglais.

  132. Re:Canadians vs. Americans by Bastian · · Score: 2, Funny

    Americans have long thought they are smarter than Canadians because they have all sorts of things like numerous wars, less than five per cent of their original forest, and the Disney corporation.

    Coincidentally, Canadians have long thought that they are smarter for the same reason.

    (Apologies to Douglas Adams.)

  133. Re:Oh, shut the fuck up by DAldredge · · Score: 1

    Your post makes you look like an idiot and that isn't the type of behavior people look for in an 'consultant' and since you link to what appears to be your business site one can make the assumption that your posts represent the business.

    Insulting over 1/2 your possible customer base is never a good idea.

  134. Deficit is not a bad thing! Weak $$ is great! by Starrider · · Score: 2, Informative

    Deficit has no tangible negative effect on the economy. Keynesian economic models prove deficit spending in a recession stimulates the economy. When the economy recovers, the deficits turn into surpluses. If you had read proven economic history, instead of smoking that John Kerry hash you might know this. John Kerry has no economic plan other than to raise taxes, so he whines about the deficit. (Oh yeah I know he wants a middle class tax cut, but Bill Clinton promised that in 1992 as well...I guess when they say tax "cut", they mean tax "hike").

    Furthermore, a weak US dollar is great for the US economy. A weak US dollar makes our exports cheaper for foreigners and makes imports more expensive for the locals. The result is more American goods are bought as opposed to a strong US dollar.

    One last note, another poster was complaining that consumer debt was at an all time high, including mortgage debt. There is a logical explaination for mortgage debt to be at an all time high -- home ownership is at the highest levels in history!

    1. Re:Deficit is not a bad thing! Weak $$ is great! by Eccles · · Score: 1

      Deficit has no tangible negative effect on the economy.

      Feh. Deficit spending is merely a delayed tax increase. We're paying boatloads for Reagan-Bush41 deficits even today.

      Furthermore, a weak US dollar is great for the US economy.

      B.S. A weak dollar means your savings and salary have decreased in terms of what they can buy. We may sell more stuff overseas, but you can't buy as much yourself. If the dollar's drop is not accompanied by a matching increase in salaries, then you personally have lost purchasing power, and no economic hand-waving is going to change that.

      Paying $1.87/gallon for unleaded certainly isn't good for my economics, and a good bit of that price increase is due to the weaker dollar.

      Agreed that the consumer debt cannot be viewed in and of itself as a bad indicator, as mortgage rates hit 30 year lows thus encouraging borrowing.

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
    2. Re:Deficit is not a bad thing! Weak $$ is great! by mikeb · · Score: 1

      $1.87 per gallon? You poor things. Why over here, it's as little as, er about $6.

    3. Re:Deficit is not a bad thing! Weak $$ is great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Furthermore, a weak US dollar is great for the US economy. A weak US dollar makes our exports cheaper for foreigners and makes imports more expensive for the locals. The result is more American goods are bought as opposed to a strong US dollar.

      But that assumption only holds true when the money made from our exports go back to the workers who produce them. With so many jobs offshored over the past 20 years, buying our "exports" benefits the company CEOs and the countries who actually produced them - like China and India.

  135. People without kids talking smack. by Breakfast+Cereal · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Try that with a family. Try that with kids who have to change schools and make new friends every time you decide you don't like your job.

    Try that with kids and a spouse who also has to work. Are you going to insist that your spouse also dump his/her job and move 1500 miles away? And hopefully find another job there? What if he/she loves his/her job?

    Try that as a single parent when you live close to family members who help you with day care.

    Try that with a sick family member whose medical condition will suddenly become "pre-existing" and not eligible for coverage when you change HMOs.

    In other words, try that when you're not a healthy young 20-something with no strings. Try that when you're like most of the population.

    Hey, I know the feeling of quitting a job that sucked and I was glad I was in a position once to do that once upon a time. It's great! But it's a luxury, and some things are worth sticking with the most soul crushing job in the world.

    1. Re:People without kids talking smack. by jazman_777 · · Score: 1
      But it's a luxury, and some things are worth sticking with the most soul crushing job in the world.

      That's heroic.

      --
      Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
    2. Re:People without kids talking smack. by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hey, I know the feeling of quitting a job that sucked and I was glad I was in a position once to do that once upon a time. It's great! But it's a luxury, and some things are worth sticking with the most soul crushing job in the world.

      I, for one, wouldn't want to set your example for my kids. Yeah, some jobs you should keep in spite of how much they suck, but some jobs require you to leave them regardless of whether or not you'll be working again soon after. Your actions have greater ramifications, and the moral lessons you teach are just as important, if not more important, than the fiscal lessons you teach.

      --
      Like what I said? You might like my music
    3. Re:People without kids talking smack. by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      I, for one, wouldn't want to set your example for my kids. Yeah, some jobs you should keep in spite of how much they suck, but some jobs require you to leave them regardless of whether or not you'll be working again soon after. Your actions have greater ramifications, and the moral lessons you teach are just as important, if not more important, than the fiscal lessons you teach.

      Yes, I suppose that's true if you happen to be working for a company that's polluting the environment and killing people (i.e: big tobacco) and your actions are directly contributing to those evils.

      I don't think it's true in this case though. SCO isn't killing anyone or harming the environment (except for the trees that are dying when they file their motions). They are a bunch of scum sucking assholes but if it's the only job you could get and you had a family to support I don't think it rises to the level of evil that would force me to quit over moral reasons.

      Your kids can't learn any moral lessons if they are starving.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    4. Re:People without kids talking smack. by rossifer · · Score: 1

      Didn't I mention that I'm 32 with a wife and a young child? My wife was in school getting her PhD and had no intention of leaving her program. I have no intention of telling you any more private details of my experience, however, I will say that we worked it through as a family; we're still a family; we don't have to travel to see each other any more; and I have a job where I have my self-respect and I'm able to build up my own business.

      I agree that it's better to have another job lined up before you quit a bad job, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way and you simply must leave the life-sucking job before it completely swallows you up.

      I've seen people who live day to day in utter misery, hating their jobs, hating their lives, nothing but a daily habit of surviving, dealing with existence as a series of disappointments along an inevitable path that they can't seem to escape. I won't live that way. I'd kill myself first. Luckily, in my experience not being willing to live that way usually means you don't have to.

      However, I'd agree with you that I'm not like most of the population. I'm in the same situation as much of the population (growing family that depends on me for income, looming questions about middle age, ability to jump careers, etc.). But I don't treat that situation the same as most people do. Which is their loss.

      Regards,
      Ross

  136. IP by Dieppe · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The company has come under fire in the last year since initiating controversial litigation to protect intellectual property rights on parts of the Linux operating system, source code that had been considered open source or freely exchanged technology. Recently the SCO Group notified companies using the technology in question that they would be sued if they didn't pay up.

    This might be poignant, but at least if I were to murder someone and the news media were reporting on it they would say "...an alleged murderer"... Why can't they say "alleged intellectual property rights" as SCO hasn't proved anything yet and there is still doubt here.

    ----
    SCO... An alleged company with an alleged business plan.

  137. Legal Team by Stevyn · · Score: 1

    10%? They can do better than that. All they really need is their legal team. They already admitted that all they have left is IP litigation.

  138. Good news by polyp2000 · · Score: 1

    Thats really good news...

    Lets watch them burn in the pits of despair

    nick ...

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
  139. SCOX support level at 6? by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting
    There seems to be an effort by somebody to keep the price from dropping below 6.0. Look at the 5 day chart. Every time the price dips below 6.0, there's a buy to push it back up to 6, but no higher. Thursday's chart is striking in this respect. It looks like somebody had a limit order in at 6.0. This may be SCO's announced "stock buyback" program. It will be interesting to see the SEC filings for the next quarter, when we find out how much cash went into the buyback.

    SCOX closed at 6.01 on Thursday and 5.99 on Friday. That does look like an effort to maintain the price.

    This only works until SCO runs out of cash, of course.

  140. What did they gain? by RichiP · · Score: 1

    Seems they lost $10 in the conversion process (and potentially a lot more if they can't sell their remaining share at $13.50 or better). What did RBC gain in this process? They lost me as a client (I used to bank mainly with RBC but have sinced moved to Scotiabank) and, I'm sure, a lot more because we thought it a moral obligation. Does this kind of thing happen often to banking insitutions like RBC?

    1. Re:What did they gain? by mec · · Score: 2

      The preferred shares have "$1000" printed on them but that doesn't mean that anybody guarantees they will pay $1000 for them.

      RBC traded each preferred share for 74.074 common shares. There are lots of people who will pay, oh, $5.98 per common share, although that price might go up or down when the markets re-open. 74.074 shares of SCOX is worth about $430 right now.

      It's not like RBC lost all that money today, because those shares of preferred stock can't be sold for $1000 anyways. No one will pay $1000 for them. RBC *recognized* the loss today, that's all.

  141. litigation doesn't take a large staff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a large staff is only necessary if you company actually develops and/or supports a product. Surprising they haven't chopped long ago!

  142. Wait till Monday by Teahouse · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They made this announcement after trading hours on Friday, and they already closed below $6 today. If you have a stock tracker, set it to watch SCOX on Monday morning when the market opens. They will easily lose another $.50 by the end of next week. Also, it will be interesting to see how many of the board members quietly dump stock in after hours trading this weekend. Half of them notified the FTC that they would be cashing in stock in small increments. I am betting those increments add up to 150,000 common shares this weekend.

    My friend (the evil capitalist) has said that this has always been a race between winning the legal cases, and the stock hitting the magic $4.50 share price when the market figired out the scam. At $4.50, there would likely be a removal of The Darl and his cronies and a cancellation of all court cases and a demand for a new CEO to turn SCO around by INNOVATING instead of LITIGATING. I am watching to see if he's right. See you Monday!

    --
    "Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
  143. The existing lawsuit-wranglers are competent by mec · · Score: 1

    I'm sympathetic with most of your analysis, but the part about how the existing people running the lawsuit are "jackasses" is wrong.

    By "jackass" I assume you mean people that don't know how to win lawsuits against large software corporations. Well, the existing management of Canopy -- who are calling the shots at SCO -- has already settled civil suits against Microsoft ($150 million) and Computer Associates ($40 million).

    It's one thing to call your opponent evil -- which I agree with -- and another to call them incompetent -- the $200 million in Canopy's pockets from two prior lawsuits says that they are experienced at this lawsuit business.

  144. "or if you owned stock ..." by mec · · Score: 1

    The stock was trading at $1 when Darl took over.
    The stock was trading at $1 when Darl announced the IBM lawsuit.
    It's trading at $6 now.

    WTF are you talking about, "running the stock price into the ground"?

    Meanwhile, SCO has already sold IP licenses to Microsoft and Sun for more money than the entire market cap of the company at the time they sold the licenses. That is, the company was worth about $18 million when Darl took over, and they sold IP for $20 million to $30 million (I stopped counting at $20 million). That's a lot of revenue for a tiny company like SCO.

  145. great business plan by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

    Mind if I share this with the RIAA?

  146. Any combination of B thru F. by Duhavid · · Score: 1

    Is what most CEO's will do. As long as it is not A.

    --
    emt 377 emt 4
  147. All I can really say is... by Maverick+Hunter+Zero · · Score: 0

    It's about time SCO started to crumble. I mean, they may have been crumbling for a long time, but now people are getting wise to their baseless claims and bailing on them.

    It's like in Spaceballs, where all the people on board the Mega maid (SCO) are evacuating, and President Skroob (Darl), Dark Helmet (Bill Gates), and Colonel Sandurz (Boies) end up going down with the ship.

    Darl reaches for the emergency stock inflation button and it's out of order. Gates says %^&&! Even in corporate america nothing works!!!

    And of course, SCO explodes.

    *cut to a scene of McBride, Gates, and Boies climbing from the wreckage. Two apes on horses approach*

    Ape #1: What is that?
    Ape #2: Corporate Screwballs!!!
    Ape #1: Oh shit. There goes the planet...

    --
    --Z
  148. Re: wasted $ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...Think of all the resources this is wasting in companies like, IBM, Novell, DaimlerChrysler, Autozone, SGI, Redhat, etc. That could be much more profitably put towards new products, R&D, etc. How many new jobs might be created, instead of wasted on these legal struggles?"

    You are showing your bias towards geeks and your discrimination towards lawyers. This is a boon for lawy%(#$*&*$(%$.

    Seriously though, ... aw never mind.

  149. I wonder... by rainer_d · · Score: 1

    ..who's gonna employ somebody who has

    ".... - 2004: Santa Cruz Corporation"

    on the last line of his CV.
    I mean, I'd rather employ somebody from Microsoft for my OSS-business than somebody who has been with SCO through most of this.
    At least, with the MSFT-guy, I feel I have a higher chance that he can do more than just sue and be a notorious sad dog, so to speak.

    I really pitty for those getting sacked.

    Rainer

    --
    Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
  150. They made the announcement before market close by mec · · Score: 1

    Briefing.com announcment

    2:01 PM SCO Group receives notice from Royal Bank of Canada of conversion of shares (SCOX): 6.00 -0.01: Co announces that it received on May 5 notice that Royal /Bank of Canada has elected to covert 10,000 shares of SCOX's Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock it currently holds ...

    Look at the time again: 2:01. Of course, that's New York time. That's an hour and fifty-nine minutes before the markets close.

    As far as selling over the weekend goes: the news is out. Anybody who *buys* over the weekend has access to this news, so they know what they are buying and will adjust the price they are willing to pay accordingly. So your whole scenario is all wet. If the insiders sold stock on May 5 or May 6 or May 7, that would be dealing *before* the news.
    Also, insider stock sales must be executed in accordance with a plan filed with the SEC (not the FTC). The plan must have no flexibility or discretion in it.

    Hey, if you want to learn more about SCO stock, start here: Yahoo! Finance for SCOX. Read the news, read the earnings numbers, check the number of employees, check the insider trades. There's a lot of information available in one spot, and it helps to know the enemy.

  151. How do I Buy stock in SCO ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This has to be the next geek party trick - buy sco, get the paperwork, and burn it !

    Of course, I'd not be offering much for the stock :-)

  152. spam link in story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What was the point of the car insurance link (click on "Versicherung") in this story??

  153. You all DO realize.... by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    ...that this means absolutely nothing since someone is already set to buy it back up, don't you?

  154. Latest insider trades of SCOX stock by Big+Bob+the+Finder · · Score: 2, Informative
    For those that might be interested, here is the most recent insider trades from SCO.

    4/07/04 JEFF F HUNSAKER Divisional Officer 5,976 Open Market Sale proceeds of $66,558.83

    4/07/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,841 Proposed Sale (Form 144) estimated proceeds of $126,817.11

    4/07/04 JEFF F HUNSAKER Vice President 5,976 Proposed Sale (Form 144) estimated proceeds of $64,002.95

    4/07/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 2,363 Exercise of Stock Options at cost of $2,646.55

    4/07/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,481 Open Market Sale proceeds of $128,736.45

    3/03/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,841 Proposed Sale (Form 144) estimated proceeds of $137,237.19

    3/03/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,841 Exercise of Stock Options at cost of $13,261.92

    3/03/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,841 Open Market Sale proceeds of $143,276.10

    2/04/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,841 Exercise of Stock Options at cost of $13,261.92

    2/04/04 THOMAS P RAIMONDI Director 11,841 Open Market Sale proceeds of $170,510.39

  155. Royal Bank of Canada by gnuman99 · · Score: 1
    news that the Royal Bank of Canada is divesting itself of SCO stock.

    And? I don't care what they do - they lost my business, present and future. Good move RBC!

    RBC investment in SCO shows their lack of undestanding of their investments in general.

  156. The noise you hear by BCW2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    is the pitter patter of tiny feet. The rats (investors) are abandoning a sinking ship. It will soon turn into a stampede.

    Enjoy the show!

    --
    Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
  157. Re:Wise Canadian company? by gnuman99 · · Score: 2, Funny

    It seems that RBC's investment motto is "Buy high, sell low". Just like Baystar's investment strategy, it seems upside down!

  158. Re:Oh, shut the fuck up said the immature wannabe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I fail to see the connection between what a web site says and what I've said on /.


    This shows your lack of intelligence.

    I'm not a religious person myself, but I do respect other people's religious beliefs. And your disrespect and trolling makes your company one that I would never consider hiring under any circumstance.

    When you grow up, you may understand this.

  159. They want to be profitable by awksedfred · · Score: 1

    So, anyone know who's buying their products?

  160. Shorts holding up stock price. by BroncoInCalifornia · · Score: 1
    uch - currently, 50% of the total float of SCOX (the SCO Stock) is shorted.

    The shorts are holding up the stock price. They have to buy to cover their stock. They put a lot of upward pressure on the stock price.

    --

    Religion is the main cause of atheism.

  161. Re:Thank "The Darl".. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You would not need to send it to Darl, he would sue you and claim he wrote it.

  162. Re:Sig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone else actually remembers DOS 4! Here's to you! For a long time, I used DOS-4 as a sort of shorthand IQ test: anyone who was still using it 90 days after DOS-5 came out failed.

    DOS-4 started me on my "I hate MS" path, so in that sense, I must thank MS. Why did it do that, you may ask? Was it because its "shell" sucked? Or that it crashed merrily whenever any program touched upper memory? Or because its use of lower memory for command.com was so high? No... although all that helped. It was mainly because edit.com would not save any file without a *.txt extension unless it was imported. So it would not write batch files from scratch! This gave me my first opportunity to hack code. I opened edit.com in a xtgold's hex editor and replaced all instances of *.txt with *.bat and resaved it as editbat.com.

    Funny, I was just remembering trying to assign IRQs and DMAs on older boxen running DOS this morning. How quickly we forget.

  163. Re:Canadians vs. Americans by corbettw · · Score: 1

    Actually, we think we're smarter than Canadians because we don't have sizable minority trying to change us from being an English speaking nation, to a bilingual nation. Bendejo.

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  164. Oh, I can so spell for shit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FOR SHIT
    done!

  165. Oblig. Starcraft Reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stallman: I know all about Slashdot. We've all seen the tapes a hundred times-

    Linus: You've seen nothing! Dissecting a dead Linux zealot in a lab is one thing - unleashing them on men is another. You must go into this with both eyes open.

    Stallman: ...

    Linus: Are you prepared to go all the way with this, Richard?

    Stallman: Yes. Yes, I am prepared to go all the way.

    Linus: Good. Good, I knew I could count on you.

    Radio: Sir. SCO is about to be overrun in a matter of minutes. Shall we intervene?

    Linus: Take us into orbit, Mr. CowboyNeal. We've seen enough.

    [Finnish music swells to a crescendo.]

  166. Re:Canadians vs. Americans by mikeb · · Score: 1

    Ah but for how much longer? How long till Spanish becomes the majority langugage in some of the States?

  167. Coming from a company like SCO... by Kjella · · Score: 1

    ...a short squeeze is unlikely. The way the stock has been dropping, it's much more likely to be a Dead Cat Bounce. The reason the price rises is people with stock options cashing out because they have made good money on that dip.

    Remember that people won't experience a short squeeze unless the stock price rises to above the price they bought them for. Like e.g. a surprise legal victory or something. If there was one, it was when slashdotters were advicing you to short at 10$ and it rose to almost $20, not now.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  168. Got me thinking! by RoyalCheese · · Score: 1

    But Oh!..then the taxpayer will have to pay development costs, and government unaccountability will result in budget over runs etc!! Hello? Isn't that what happens with most of our current defence contracts already? That got me thinking.. I could set up an arms company, put in a bid to win some maybe minor defence contract (special low price), go on holiday all year.. When Defence Procurement guy phones up and asks where we are with the development of Project X9999, I tell him.. Oh, very difficult.. behind schedule, need an extension.. and more of your money.. He writes me a check and makes a diary note to call me again same time next year! Sounds fantastic! Founder and CEO of Royal Cheese Weapons "Can you smell my cheese?"

  169. Only in the United States by Nice2Cats · · Score: 1
    I dunno, being litigious bastards makes a disturbing amount of sense from a purely business perspective.

    Only under the American 18th Century, mucho-upgefuckt bizarro-head legal system. Note that the German courts just bitch-slapped them and they haven't even tried to go after people in Britain. Real courts in countries with real legal systems aren't impressed by this sort of crap.

    SCO, like 90 percent of all spam, is an American-made problem that is affecting the whole world. The fact that SCO could keep this suit alive as long as it has been able to is symptom of just how messed up the U.S. legal system is. While U.S. companies are spending their time and money in court, somebody in Bangalore is figuring out how to prefect that interface. Sooner or later, this is going to have an effect.

    1. Re:Only in the United States by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah it'll have an effect. US realizes this and makes Bangalore change into the same legal system.

  170. White house charges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    from a card-carrying anonymous coward of the democratic party.

    Maybe you should learn how the jobs reports, and unemployment reports are put together.

    Initials are for claims. Revisions are after checks have been paid out. Every unemployment office reports initials, then adjusts the numbers according to who actually collected a check. In between, some don't collect a check because they die, they find a job, they leave the country, they get caught for identity fraud trying to collect as more than one person, etc.

    Jobs reports are the same. They take numbers from the law requiring advance notice of layoffs, unemployment claims, and many other factors. And then the reports that the employers send in confirm the numbers, or they cause an adjustment. And the amount of taxes paid, tied to the actual number of employees that worked, get reported when the taxes come in. At that point, the employment situation is confirmed because actual taxes were collected, causing an adjustment of numbers that were generated prior to taxes being paid. Once the taxes are paid, THAT's IT. That's the official number. From experience.

  171. On Spin and Facts by Nice2Cats · · Score: 1
    It shouldn't be difficult to counter the spin when the facts are on your side.

    Yeah, that's what the rest of the world was hoping when the U.S. kept babbling about all of those WMD that were supposed to be in Iraq and how somebody just had to do something about them before Saddam kills us all. Go back and watch a tape of Powell spinning, nay, lying his ass off in front of the United Nations.

    Facts don't help in the face of pig-headed egotistical stupidity, as the daily death of U.S., British, and Polish soldiers in Basra and Baghdad shows quit clearly. Facts gain most of their power in hindsight. Watch for lots of 20-20 "analyst" visions after SCO crashes and burns.

    1. Re:On Spin and Facts by stealth.c · · Score: 1

      well then why doesn't somebody take the facts and then yell really fscking loud? bah! ;)

      To be honest I agree witcha. I had second thoughts about that sentence the moment I hit Submit.

  172. I will buy it by EachLennyAPenny · · Score: 1

    when it's worth nothing. This will drive the price up and then i'll sell at 1 USD making infinite profite.

  173. Re:Canadians vs. Americans by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 1

    How long till Spanish becomes the majority langugage in some of the States?

    Que?

    Hmmm, I just realized I screwed up my Spanish in another post. Hope nobody notices...

    --
    Like what I said? You might like my music
  174. Buzzwords ... by zonix · · Score: 1

    Not only that. Take a look at the first few paragraphs, it looks like something Dilbert's Mission Statement Generator came up with:

    BayStar makes investments in innovative and promising companies that are potentially synergistic with its portfolio companies as well as its expanding network of strategic relationships.

    BayStar is committed to seeking out and fostering strategic relationships that help companies move to successively higher levels of achievement and profitability. The technology executives that have invested in BayStar are an invaluable resource to our portfolio companies, offering industry insights and introductions to key industry contacts. BayStar's experience in the public markets provides proven expertise in the evaluation, preparation and execution of public offerings.

    z
    --
    What would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
  175. Half German by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 1

    but I was born in the good old USA.

    "We regret to announce the following layoffs... Homer Simpson... that is all!"

    --
    Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
  176. You have swallowed a myth about the dollar by Starrider · · Score: 1

    Feh. Deficit spending is merely a delayed tax increase. We're paying boatloads for Reagan-Bush41 deficits even today.

    Are you nuts??? Deficit spending is what most Democrats want to do to grow a stagnant economy. Deficit spending pushes a weak economy into a stronger one. Look, before you make a blindly partisan attack, understand Keynsian theory. this has been around a LONG LONG TIME, and used by BOTH parties. It is so widely accepted as fact I wonder what rock you crawled out from under. Budget surpluses aren't created by tax increases, but a stronger overall economy. Contrary to what the left would have you believe, Clinton's tax increases did not reduce the deficit. Controlled spending and a booming economy did. (Oh btw, policies of any government take about 3-4 years to have significant effect on the economy. This is why it is rediculous to credit/blame any first term president for the economy during his first term.)

    Deficit spending is a demand-side impact on the economy, whereas massive tax decreases have the supply-side effect. The deficit spending under Regan (as supported by the democrats) moved the economy forward. I'm a republican, and don't like massive governmenet spending, but both the Reagan tax cuts AND the spending improved the economy and helped bankrupt the USSR. (Before you bash supply side, understand the Federal reserve chairmain during Regan had interest rates did not play ball, keeping interest rates high. Supply side may still be a bunk theory, but it never was implemented like it was intended.)

    You obviously are confusing national debt and deficit spending. Deficit spending during WWII broke the cycle of depression. Deficit spending by the government builds up the economy.

    Massive national debt *can* affect the economy by increasing interest rates (the government is borrowing so much, it decreases the amount of lower interest rates loans availiable to the market). However this arugment is still wishy-washy, because the Fed will lower interest rates far enough during a recession in an effort to spur growth.

    B.S. A weak dollar means your savings and salary have decreased in terms of what they can buy. We may sell more stuff overseas, but you can't buy as much yourself. If the dollar's drop is not accompanied by a matching increase in salaries, then you personally have lost purchasing power, and no economic hand-waving is going to change that.

    Do you know anything about economics? A weak dollar doesn't affect you unless you buy something FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY! When the dollar is weak, all american dollars are weak. All american dollars go down at the same time. You can buy just as many *American* goods as you could before, just less imports. That loaf of bread won't cost a dime more to you, because it was made in the USA.

    What you are talking about is INFLATION. A weaker US dollar has nothing to do with INFLATION. If there is inflation, that means your dollars have less buying power EVERYWHERE, not just in the US. The "weak" dollar you are talking about is in relation to foriegn currency.

    Currently, there is effectively ZERO inflation. Your dollars buy the same amount as they did yesterday, as long as you buy American goods.

    Read up on economics before you spout such ignorance.

    Unless your livelyhood depends on imported cars and imported chocolate, you won't even notice the weak dollar. You can buy just as many locally grown groceries as you could before.

    As far as gasoline is concerned, you argument is hogwash. The #1 reason for gas prices is supply and demand. Consumption is up all over the world: China uses more oil than the United States. OPEC cut production despite higher demand. Higher gas prices do have an impact on the economy, but gas prices are up less from a weaker dollar and more from supply and demand.

    If you want to buy something imported, yes you will feel it. Because staples are rarely affected, the vast majority of families will not feel any problem, and the overall economy improves.

    Read up on economics, because nothing you have said is based in reality.

    1. Re:You have swallowed a myth about the dollar by Eccles · · Score: 1

      Are you nuts???

      FOAD. Argue issues and dispense with the personal attacks.

      Deficit spending is what most Democrats want to do to grow a stagnant economy.

      What 'most Democrats want to do' does not concern me. Seems to me I remember a Contract with America just 10 years ago touting the advantages of a balanced budget. Amazing how much the Republicans -- other than McCain -- have changed.

      Look, there's no difference economically (except the actual interest rate) between me doing a lot of borrowing on my credit card, and the government doing it for me by cutting taxes and borrowing to make up the difference. In the end, I'll have to pay it back. Only difference is, if I didn't get much advantage from the latest tax cuts, I may end up having to pay for more debt than I've gotten in tax cuts.

      BTW, if you can't even spell "Reagan", it really makes the attempted air of smug superiority look *really* stupid.

      You obviously are confusing national debt and deficit spending.

      You get the national debt *via* deficit spending. Are you imagining some strange world where you get the latter without the former? We *are* indisputably paying interest on national debt accumulated mostly in the 80's and early 90's.

      Do you know anything about economics? A weak dollar doesn't affect you unless you buy something FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY!

      Yes, I know something about economics, most especially that we've had a trade deficit for a long time. Which means we buy more goods from foreign countries than they buy of ours. So when you buy Chilean grapes, Saudi oil, etc. with a weaker dollar, you're paying a higher price than you would. Now, it may also lead to higher sales of our exports. But it's certainly not an unmitigated good to have a weak dollar, it harms as much as it helps. You claimed otherwise.

      We don't buy many foreign goods? What does the back of your monitor say? Your shirt tag? How much of your car was made in the U.S.? We buy a *lot* of foreign goods; we don't spend that much on bread.

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  177. Re:Canadians vs. Americans by corbettw · · Score: 1

    Umm, you don't know what "bendejo" or "irony" mean, do you?

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  178. SCO 5 year Stock Report ;) by icecow · · Score: 1

    http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCO&t=5y&l=on&z=l& q=l&c=

    (yes the link ends with an equal sign)

    --
    Stop invalid scientific research. Ask your local scientists to feed their lab rats with a phytoestrogen-free chow.
    1. Re:SCO 5 year Stock Report ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Afraid not. Their symbol is SCOX.

      Try this instead.

  179. Wait.. by rofthorax · · Score: 1

    How many employees does SCO actually have?
    I thought it was just one guy with a bunch of lawyers sueing all the non-SCO unixes?

    --
    Just say no to license servers!!
    1. Re:Wait.. by jcuervo · · Score: 1

      I just read 330 (that's three hundred and thirty) about 5 minutes ago.

      --
      Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
  180. Re:Wise Canadian company? by crivens · · Score: 1

    Wow, everyone completely missed the humour in my post!

  181. Re:good by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

    I completely agree. It is great to hear that SCO is losing their court battles but it is tough to hear people getting laid off. Now all those people have SCO as their last place of employment, that has gotta hurt.

    Yeah, but you know what I would ask if I was interviewing them, "Why didn't you leave sooner?"

    I doubt would for SCO would be that much of a black mark on your resume, if you were actually smart enough to leave when they started drinking kool-aid. What looks bad is that you continued to work for a company that had no long term business plan, or even a respectable short term one.

    Would you really want an employee who either:
    A) couldn't tell he was on a sinking ship?
    or
    B) knew the company was doomed and sat there anyways?

    The guy's either got a poor understanding or the market or questionable ethics. Neither is good. I would hope the person could at least say, "I was looking for another job but unable to find one."

    Just sitting there one you hands while on a sinking ship isn't good.

    --
    Life is too short to proofread.
  182. Re:good by cbovasso · · Score: 1

    I completely agree with you on certain points. I can tell you from experience that when I was an intern during the dotbust I never saw it coming. I was offered a full time job making some serious cash but luckily my parents warned me and told me to stay in school. I would have been out of work in 6 months.

    Those are the people that I feel sorry for, because they thought it was a great opportunity to get their foot into the door of a big company. Maybe they stayed on too long which is their faults but now what?
    Most likely all the techy folks at SCO left awhile ago and all that is left are lawyers and executives.
    You mentioned how it is bad to work for a company that has no long term business plan, etc, but for an intern or a recent grad there is no way to really see that. Most interns/new hires dont have that foresight.

    Thats all Im saying...Ill pour out a 40 of Jolt for my laid off brothers and sisters.

    --
    I ask for a car and I get a computer. How's about that for being born under a bad .sig?